Production Glossary
Block Booking
Block booking was a plan devised by movie studios that required movie theaters to purchase a bundled set of movies all together, instead of allowing them to choose single movies for showing. The height of block booking was in the 1930s and 40s. During this era, movie theaters had to purchase a year’s worth of movies without seeing them first (in some cases they hadn’t even been filmed yet). If a theater chose not to purchase a bundle from movie studios, they ran the risk of missing out on major blockbusters that would sell tickets come their release.Block booking benefited the movie studios because it guaranteed that their smaller budget films would turn a profit. By partnering those films with the larger, more attractive blockbusters, movie studios were able to continue producing both types of films without the fear of losing money. Star Wars was a “small” film that was block booked with a major motion picture when it was first released in theaters.
Despite being illegal, block booking still happens in the movie industry today. Quite similar to “package deals”, studios will sell a major motion picture for $$$, or pair it with a small budget film and sell it for $$. It is then up to the theater to decide if they want to spend more or less money, whereas before it was the only option for theaters if they wanted to show the best films.
