Word: boxful
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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When The Green Pastures opened on Broadway in 1930, Variety thought it was "dreadfully lacking in box-office ability," predicted that "a ten-week stay ... should be sufficient." Variety was dreadfully wrong. Alexander Woollcott, guessing better in the New Yorker, said it was "the highest peak in the range of the American theater." Brooks Atkinson, in the Times, called it "the divine comedy of the modern theater." The Green Pastures (based on Roark Bradford's stories) won a Pulitzer Prize, ran for five years, played 1,779 performances in 203 cities to nearly two million people, grossed...
After dinner, Rank buries himself in a pile of papers and a box of chocolates until 2 a.m. Nell keeps him company; she sits beside him and knits. "Hollywood has 30 years on us," he explains. "We must do three days' work in one to catch...
Such stars as Ann Todd, Michael Redgrave, Patricia Roc, Stewart Granger and John Mills will take their suntans and return to Britain as better attractions at the U.S. box office. Some of his artists, including Margaret Lockwood, are still on the verbal agreement basis because Hollywood is no lure to them. They prefer-out of patriotism and regard for Rank-to stay in England. Director David Lean (Great Expectations) is a case in point. After previewing the movie, a Hollywood executive wired Rank to find out how long his contract with Lean ran. Said Lean, who has no contract: "Forever...
Size of the Dowry. Because of his lavish spending, Rank's pictures netted him only a modest profit last year. But his theaters netted him a profit of about $25 million. Unless the current slump in the box office gets much worse and nips Rank, Hollywood expects that he will have all the cash he needs to finance his picturemaking...
...quickly and how much can he gain on Hollywood? In Britain, if his production reaches 100 pictures a year -the maximum with present studios-he may cut Hollywood to 70% of the total box-office take in the United Kingdom, thus cut the dollar drain on Britain by about $20,000,000. On the same production basis, he might send enough top pictures to the U.S. to step his profits up to $18,000,000. This would be a blow to Hollywood. But Rankmen bumptiously predict that within five years they will be digging up $50,000,000 in Hollywood...