fourwalling

fourwalling
 v.— «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.» —“‘Four-Walling’ Hikes Movie Profits” by Charles Foley News Journal (Mansfield, Ohio) Oct. 27, 1974. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Join the discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

Blessing Box (episode #1613)

Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...