THEATER OWNERS FAIL TO SEE LINING IN THE SILVER SCREEN

Donald R. Keough, president of the Coca-Cola Co., provided the ironies. Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, provided the statistics and the metaphors. And the moviegoers of America provided the black cloud that hung over Thursday’s opening session of the 1985 National Assn. of Theater Owners convention.

After several booming years at the box office, business has suddenly taken a nose dive, and no one’s quite sure who or what is to blame.

The VCR revolution? Bad product? High ticket prices? Shabby theater maintenance?

Even Valenti, the industry’s most dependable optimist, acknowledged that the film business is in a slump, and compared exhibitors to a pair of Greek gods ordered to spend half of eternity on Olympus and half in Hades.

In other words, you’ve got your good years, and you’ve got your bad.

Valenti said ticket sales will be down about 10% from 1984, a falloff he blames on poor film quality.

“The box office is down in 1985 for one simple reason,” he said. “We didn’t have enough attractive films in the marketplace.” Attractive was a good word choice. The audience would have applauded Valenti just as loudly had he said there weren’t enough “good” movies, but that would have been a different subject.

To this crowd, “Rambo,” which grossed more than $150 million, is one of the best movies ever made.

The presence of Coca-Cola is felt everywhere at this convention. The soft-drink giant is hosting Saturday’s black-tie banquet, during which the exhibitors will honor box-office draws Clint Eastwood, Michael J. Fox, Kathleen Turner and Ron Howard.

Columbia screened “Murphy’s Romance,” one of its Christmas movies, for the exhibitors (in it, Sally Field indulges in a Cherry Coke, while players at a bingo contest are seen sipping Diet Cokes).

Coke’s Keough gave the keynote address Thursday, using the company’s celebrated experience with its New Coke formula as a cautionary tale about research.

Keough said Coke introduced the new formula only after being convinced by research that consumers would prefer it to the old Coke.

“All of our research couldn’t reveal the passion for the old (formula),” Keough said.

Despite the outcry and Coke’s subsequent decision to re-release the old Coke under a Classic label, he said the change pushed the company into a new growth pattern. By the end of the year, Coke brands--Coke, Coke Classic, Cherry Coke and Diet Coke--will account for 40% of all soft-drink sales, he said. The lesson for theater owners, said Keough: Don’t accept the status quo, and don’t be afraid to change your formulas.

That might be better advice if theater owners made movies instead of just showing them.