Kids Movies Pass Through Theaters Quickly

A word of advice for those contemplating taking the family out to the multiplex for the latest children’s movie: Better step on it. By the time you get there, the film could well be gone.

These days, there is growing pressure to speed all kinds of films in and out of theaters and on to home video. That is becoming especially apparent in the children’s area, where big box office draws are obviously allowed to take their time on the big screen, but smaller films are prodded.

For example, “Shiloh,” a favorably reviewed movie about a boy who tries to rescue a mistreated hound from an abusive hunter, opened in a few theaters in a few cities on April 25. Reports vary on how long it lasted, but distributors say it was no longer than two weeks.

On June 24, Warner is to release the cassette.

Ordinarily films take between five and six months to move to the small screen. “Shiloh’s” two-month passage may be a record, but right on its heels comes another of this summer’s fast steppers: “Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Second Jungle Book, Mowgli and Baloo,”’ which began a brief stay in theaters on May 16. Columbia Tri-Star plans to have the tape in stores by late July.

Officials at both studios say “Shiloh” and “Jungle Book” were put in theaters only long enough to drum up attention for the videos. That’s a common enough procedure with many smaller movies, of course, particularly independently produced ones that might not otherwise get a theater run at all.

Video dealers naturally would like to get films shortly after they have finished the most productive part of their theater runs, not weeks and perhaps months later, when they are dragging out their stays on a relatively few screens.