Evidence study no. 25 of the motion picture industry (1933)

CHAPTER V BLOCK BOOKING Because of the publicity resulting from the action of the Federal Trade Commission and of a substantial number of independent exhibitors, it is probable that the problems revolving around what is commonly called "block booking" have been brought to the attention of the general public to a greater extent than have most of the commercial problems of the industry. As usually happens, the layman's ideas on this problem are largely those gained from newspaper dispatches and consequently are distorted as frequently as they are sound. There is ample justification, therefore, for devoting a considerable amount of attention to this method of sale, both because it is extremely important in itself and because the facts are so little understood by those outside the industry. Block booking as a business practice may be defined as the simultaneous sale to a distributor of a number of motion pictures for release and delivery to the exhibitor over a period of time, the pictures being offered as a group and the aggregate price being in part dependent upon the quantity taken. If the exhibitor accepts the entire block as offered, the price generally is lower per picture than if he selects a smaller number of pictures included in the block. Some distributors have been accused of offering their blocks of pictures on an "all or none" basis, or in other words refusing to sell an exhibitor any of the pictures in a block unless he takes the entire block as offered. The practice is one of long standing. As far back as 1923, complaints brought by motion picture exhibitors against the practice of block booking culminated in an action before the Federal Trade Commission against the Famous Players 142