fourwall

v. to pay for the right to entertain at a theatre or on a stage. Subjects: English, United States, Entertainment, Jargon

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Citations: 1974 Stephen Farber @ Los Angeles New York Times (Feb. 24) “So You Make a Movie—Will the Public Ever See It?” p. 105: The example of “Billy Jack” is being studied by everyone in the industry. Tom Laughlin, the producer, director and star of the 1971 film, was dissatisfied with Warners’ distribution of the film, so he went out and dealt directly with the exhibitors. Under his careful strategy, the film was recently re-released by Warners to astonishing business.…John Rubel, vice president of Billy Jack Productions, explains Laughlin’s “four-walling” scheme that proved so successful on re-release: “Instead of the usual percentage deal, we rent the theater for a week so that we become in effect the exhibitor of the film.” 1974 Charles Foley News Journal (Mansfield, Ohio) (Oct. 27) “‘Four-Walling’ Hikes Movie Profits” p. 3: How, in these inflationary times, do you persuade the public to pay $23 million to watch your old home movies, mixed in wish some stock wildlife footage? Answer: You call the confection the “Great American Something,” or simply the “American Something”—and you four-wall it.…This new marketing technique, so-called because the film-maker literally rents the theater’s foour walls himself, has already made fortunes.…Dub’s astonishing success is due almost entirely to his adroit use of four-walling. 2003 Joe Bob Briggs Reason (Los Angeles, California) (Nov.) “Kroger Babb’s Roadshow”: Kroger Babb, who billed himself as “America’s Fearless Young Showman,” ruled over a vast army of Mom and Dad “roadshow units” from his headquarters in Worthington, Ohio. He used a form of exhibition that has all but disappeared today, called “fourwalling.” Instead of booking his film into theaters for a percentage of the box office, he would simply rent the theater outright and take it over for the week or, in smaller markets, just one or two days. He would pay for all advertising and promotion, put his own banners and marquees out front, and turn the theater into a midway attraction, complete with lobby curiosities designed to lure customers. 2006 Sam Howe Verhovek Los Angeles Times (Mar. 20) “Playing Out of Pocket”: In Vegas parlance, Wallace is a “four-waller,” the term used when an entertainer pays for his or her stage time. It’s an increasingly common arrangement that guarantees the hotel or casino rent and puts much of the marketing and production onus on the performer, unlike the more traditional contract in which the performer receives a set fee. For the entertainer—often an aging star or perhaps one who never made the showbiz A-list—four-walling is a huge roll of the dice, with odds of success that make the craps tables look inviting.

Posted 15 Oct 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

The truth as it regards “Four Walling”. Four Walling began in the early 1900’s by black filmmakers who were shunned and unable to get their films into theaters. The idea was that if they had a project and a projector, all that was needed was four walls and advertising to sell their tickets to see the movie that they had created. The most famous “Four-Waller” of them all was the great “Oscar Micheaux” who took the business of four walling and turned it into a highly profitable way of doing business. It was an highly successful technique until the studios decided to desegregate the theaters in the south. This temporarily killed the practice of “four walling” until it began to reemerge again through filmmakers and theatrical producers determined to get their productions before an audience and turn a profit at the same time.

by GlennT 31 May 09, 0131 GMT