fourwalling
v.— «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.”» —“So You Make a Movie—Will the Public Ever See It?” by Stephen Farber in Los Angeles New York Times Feb. 24, 1974. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
Floordrobe is the new word for an old habit: piling your clothes on the floor instead of putting them away. The Oxford English Dictionary recently added an entry for it, defining floordrobe as “an untidy heap of discarded clothing left on the floor...