Each of the feature programs has its own type of organization. Some are practically closed corporations handling only the productions of a certain group of manufacturers. Others are comparatively elastic in their organization, and, while releasing all the productions of certain manufacturers, will also contract to handle the pictures made by independent workers. The manufacturer usually receives his income from the feature program through a percentage of the rental earnings of his pictures. In the case of distributors who sign monthly or yearly contracts with exhibitors to supply them with a stated number of pictures each week it can be seen that the manufacturer’s return will be almost a constant figure, affected only slightly by the merits of the individual picture. This is, in fact, one of the most important defects of the closely bound program, it tends to place all the pictures on a common level. While this may work to the producer’s advantage in the case of a poor picture, he also finds it irksome when he attempts to secure the proper return from a picture that cost him an unusually large amount to produce. The feature program that secures its income from the per diem rentals of each picture, with no long-term contracts to fall back upon, is a trifle more elastic. We now come to the latest step in the evolution of the business side of the motion picture. This is, in many ways, a return to the methods of the theatrical producer. The manufacturers found that they could not expect to secure a reasonable profit from pictures that cost extra-large sums of money and many months of preparation if they were marketed through the ordinary channels. So they resolved to take a leaf from the stage producer’s book and turn exhibitors themselves. With such productions as “The Birth of a Nation” the manufacturer handles the presentation himself in the large cities, and the picture, like the spoken play, is presented as long as it attracts patrons. If the picture succeeds, an engagement to packed houses of many weeks, or even months, is assured, so that it can be seen that the manufacturer’s profits are tremendous. Different methods are used following the metropolitan engagements. Sometimes the manufacturer will sell the rights to the territory he has not touched, just as in the old days he sold “state rights.” Or perhaps he will send out many different prints of the picture to tour the country under his own management in the same manner that the theatrical manager sends out a number of companies to present the piece that has succeeded in New York. The original company will be seen only in New York, and possibly Chicago and a few other large cities, while the other companies will tour the “one-night stands,” up and down the map. Just as the prestige of success in New York aids a play, so it also proves valuable to a picture.