four-wall

English

Adjective

four-wall (not comparable)

1. Relating to the rental of a cinema or theater for a fixed fee rather than a portion of the box office revenue.
   • 2012, Thomas A. Crowell, The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers, page 311:

     […] since the typical four-wall arrangement allows the theater to keep all the money made on concessions.

   • 2013, Steven Louis Shelley, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, page 157:

     When the theatre is a four-wall rental (i.e., the only thing the theatre provides in the rental agreement is the four walls), most lighting designers first carefully check the tech specs to see exactly what, if anything, may be useful or available for the show.

   • 2014, Greg Sestero, Tom Bissell, The Disaster Artist, page 263:

     He did, however, successfully secure a four-wall distribution deal—a process by which a studio rents a movie theater for a period of time and receives all of the box office revenue—with Laemmle Theaters.

Related terms

• four-waller
• four-walling