Callow Regard for Robert Meltzer.

[Tony]

Don't worry, Glenn: Welles loved digressions! :;):

I just remembered now that the Ambersons figure I saw was in, I believe, the Jan. 1943 issue of Variety; it may have been the first year they published box office receipts for the previous year. Each studio had a list of their movies which had made one million or more at the box office in 1942: Ambersons was at the bottom of the list, having just squeaked in at just over a million. In his book on Kane, Carringer states:

"...The Magnificent Ambersons had gone drastically over budget- $1,013,760.46 in actual costs against an estimate of $853,950."

Now, assuming this means production costs only, there would still be the costs of prints, distribution, and promotion. Nevertheless, I am impressed that the film made back almost all of it's production costs minus the difference between Carringer's figure and the just over a million figure of Variety's. And much of the promotion and distribution for the film would have been done by people already on the RKO payroll, and in RKO departments.

If the Variety figure is accurate, it seems Ambersons, while not a profit maker, was also not the box office disaster that everyone remembers it to be, and had enough of a reputation to get four Oscar nominations, including one for best picture.

[Glenn Anders]

True, Tony.

[The IMDb uses the $850,000 Gross figure you quote.]

But I say again, you neglect the fact that RKO had been in bankruptcy for several years. Modest losses (and a $150,000 loss then was real bucks) would not impress the conservators to allow the Studio to emerge from its miserable financial status.

Finally, we are overlooking a huge factor. The coming of war to Europe in 1939 had curtailed the profits which the Studios depended upon to make their losses turn into winners. Between the release of CITIZEN KANE and the shooting of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, Pearl Harbor occurred, shutting down both the European AND the Asian markets for how long, no one could have predicted.

Charlie Koerner was put in charge of production by the New York banks, who undoubtedly had thought that giving Welles carte blanche (rather than using him for a cheap publicity stunt) was a mistake from the start.

It is entirely possible that the Banks "bought" a couple of those Academy Award Nominations. They would have known that, back then, four Nominations would be worth another hundred thousand dollars at the box office, out in the hinterlands of America. From my standpoint, I would not have given four Nominations to THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. The true film exists, if at all, only in a jungle on the edge of Rio, or in our imaginations.

Glenn

[Tony]

I have always felt that what happened to Ambersons was WWII; You are absolutely right to point out that the European markets dried up, markets which would have been more amenable to the spirit of Ambersons.

I guess RKO should have listened to Welles: premiere Ambersons in Rio, and develop the South American market, which was also, like Europe, sympathetic to his darkness; they might have turned a profit!