The Take

After months of financial calamity-howling, the seven major studios last week found that in 1947--despite the British tax, several box-office slumps and a 12% jump in production costs--they had netted (after taxes) about $96,000,000.* It was, to be sure, 23% less than they had collected in 1946, but it was more than the movies had made in any year before that.

But during 1948, moviemen gloomily predicted, studio earnings would plunge to about $60,000,000; Warner's first-quarter 1948 profits were down 40% from last year's, Columbia's 50%, MGM's 60%.

Meanwhile, the winter of box-office discontent was over, and an encouraging amount of spring green was beginning to show in the exhibitors' till. Variety listed the recent box office leaders:

Gentleman's Agreement (20th Century-Fox)

Saigon (Paramount)

Naked City (Mark Bellinger; Universal-International)

Sitting Pretty (20th Century-Fox)

The Bishop's Wife (Goldwyn; RKO Radio)

A Double Life (Universal-International)

* The figures (as reported by Variety): Warner: $22,000,000; 20th Century-Fox: $14,000,000; MGM: $11,626,427; Columbia: $3,706,541; Universal-International: $3,230,017. Probable net for Paramount: $33,000,000; for RKO Radio: $8,500,000.

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