Scope Samples #4

Wide Worlds: China vs. Us, Raindrops Fall on Westerns, and Eastwood Deals in DynamiteTHE SAND PEBBLES (1966) --- Was there roadshow fatigue by the mid-sixties? At least for Fox, there seemed more losing than winning, The Sound of Music a historic exception, though for every one of that, there were two like The Bible or The Agony and the Ecstasy, plus barely-eecking-profit Cleopatra which needed a network sale to get even. Hits when they had them saw less spent or content the public could better enjoy, The Blue Max completed for $6.2 million, with Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machine fun-for-whole-families event to which they willingly bought hard tickets for a row-full. The Sand Pebbles was released at the end of 1966 to run mostly through 1967. Negative cost was $12.1 million and because of that, even worldwide rentals of $17. 3 million would not offset nearly two million ultimately lost. 70mm prints of The Sand Pebbles were blown-up from 35mm. We could wonder if our…