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For Susan Stroman's ballet, see Double Feature (ballet). See also List of New York City Ballet repertory, NYCB 2008 Winter Repertory, NYCB 2008 Spring Repertory Double Feature (A Ballet in Two
A poster advertising a double feature of Die Monster Die! and Planet of the Vampires.
A poster advertising a double feature of Die Monster Die! and Planet of the Vampires. Planet of the Vampires ( Italian title Terrore nello spazio) is a 1965 Italian science fiction / Horror film

The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.

Contents

Origin and format

Movie theaters, interested in attracting customers during the Great Depression, began changing the way they booked movies. Cinemaaustraliajpg|thumb|A movie theater in Australia ]]A movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre or cinema is a venue In the 1920s, before the Depression and the advent of sound film, an evening at the cinema would often consist of the following:

Theater owners decided that they could both attract more customers and save on costs if they offered two movies for the price of one. A newsreel is a Documentary film that is regularly released in a public presentation place containing filmed News stories In the Film industry, a feature film is a Film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening In the typical 1930s double bill, the screening began with a variety program consisting of trailers, a newsreel, a cartoon and/or a short film preceding a low-budget second feature (the B movie), followed by a short interlude. A B movie is a motion picture made on a low or modest budget Originally the term was used for films intended for distribution as the less-publicized second half of a Double Afterward, the high-budget main feature (the A movie) ran. Although the double feature put many short comedy producers out of business, it was the primary source of revenue for smaller Hollywood studios, such as Republic and Monogram, that specialized in B movie production. Republic Pictures (also known as Republic Entertainment Inc) is an independent film television and video distribution company that was originally a movie production-distribution Monogram Pictures Corporation was a Hollywood studio that produced and released films most on low budgets between 1931 and

Decline

The double feature arose partly because of a studio practice known as "block booking," a form of tying in which major Hollywood studios required theaters to buy B-movies along with the more desirable A-movies. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that this practice was illegal in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. in 1948, contributing to the end of the studio system. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. United States v Paramount Pictures, Inc, 334 US 131 ( 1948) (also known as the Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948, the Paramount The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1950s

However, many smaller or independent cinemas especially drive-in theatres sought double features to bring in more patronage. A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen a projection booth a Concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles Sometimes a film would be accompanied by a rerelease, otherwise a smaller studio may have been contracted to bring in a low budget second feature. James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff formed their American International Pictures with the idea of providing a double feature of two B pictures for often less than the price of a single A feature, or taking a lower percentage of the cinema's grosses than the major studios. James Harvey Nicholson ( September 14 1916 &ndash December 10 1972) was an American film producer. Samuel Zachary Arkoff ( June 12 1918 &ndash September 16 2001) was an American producer of B-movies. American International Pictures was a Film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing I-frame redirects here For the HTML-element see IFrame. The three major picture types found in typical Video compression designs are [1]

By the 1960s, double features had been mostly abandoned in non drive in's in favor of the modern single-feature screening, in which only one feature film is exhibited. However, double bills of popular series that had previously been run as a single feature such as the James Bond and Matt Helm superspy genre and The Man With No Name and The Stranger spaghetti westerns were rereleased together. James Bond 007 is a Fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve Novels and two Short story Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. The Genre of spy fiction —sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller or sometimes shortened simply to Spy-fi —arose before The Man with No Name is a Stock character in western films but the term usually applies specifically to the character (or possibly characters played by Spaghetti Western, also known in some countries in mainland Europe as the Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western

Short films still occasionally precede the feature presentation (Pixar films generally feature a short, for example), but the double feature is now effectively extinct in first-run movie theaters in the U. Pixar Animation Studios is a CGI animation production company based in Emeryville California. S.

Following the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, three Roger Rabbit cartoon shorts were created to be shown as preludes to other Disney films, in an effort to revive the viewing of cartoon shorts before major films. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 Live-action/animated film produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company (released The following is a list of characters from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Only three were made and the scheme failed.

Many repertory houses continue to show two films, usually related in some way, back to back. For other meanings of repertory please see Repertory (disambiguation.

During the 1990s, many VHS cassettes that showed two films on the same tape (the second was often a sequel to the first film) were self-named as "double features. "

In 2007, filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez released their individual films Planet Terror and Death Proof as a double feature under the title Grindhouse, edited together with fake exploitation film trailers and 1970s-era snipes in order to replicate the experience of viewing a double feature in a "grindhouse" theater. Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an Academy Award - BAFTA Award - and Palme d'Or -winning Emmy - and Robert Anthony Rodriguez (born June 20 1968 is an American director, writer, producer, Cinematographer, editor and Musician Planet Terror is a 2007 film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, about a group of people attempting to survive an onslaught of zombie-like creatures Death Proof is a 2007 thriller Film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, about a psychopathic Stunt man Grindhouse is a 2007 Film co-written produced and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Exploitation film is a type of film that eschews the expense of quality productions in favor of making films inexpensively attracting viewers by exciting their more prurient interests A Snipe in the motion picture exhibition business refers to two things Any material before the feature presentation other than a trailer for a film. Exploitation film is a type of film that eschews the expense of quality productions in favor of making films inexpensively attracting viewers by exciting their more prurient interests Although Grindhouse received critical acclaim, it was a complete financial flop in the United States. The films were screened individually in international markets and on DVD.

Notable Examples

Film

VHS

References

See also

Dictionary

double feature

-noun

  1. Two feature-length motion pictures being shown back-to-back in a movie theatre, with the understanding both may be seen for the price of a single ticket.
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