a double feature is a program in which a theater shows two films for one ticket, replacing the older pattern of a single feature preceded by newsreels, cartoons and short comedies. the practice spread in the 1930s: after sound arrived in 1929 many independent exhibitors dropped the short-subject program, and during the depression two films for one price drew audiences at little extra cost to the house.
a typical 1930s bill ran trailers, a newsreel and a cartoon or short, then a low-budget second feature, an interlude, and finally the main feature. the second features were supplied by dedicated units. the majors made their own B pictures using contract players and standing sets, while republic pictures, active from 1935, and monogram pictures built their businesses on them, as did smaller poverty row outfits.
block booking drove the system: distributors sold B movies tied to the desirable A pictures, so a theater that wanted the year's big titles had to take the cheap ones too. the supreme court's may 1948 ruling in united states v. paramount pictures, inc. made the practice illegal, and studios lost the incentive to make B features. even so, nearly two-thirds of american movie houses were still advertising double features in 1948, drawing the second title from reissues, from re-release specialists such as realart and astor pictures, or from small independent producers.
in the mid-1950s james h. nicholson and samuel z. arkoff formed american international pictures and sold pairs of low-budget films as a single program, with equal billing and a percentage deal instead of a flat rental. drive-ins, whose showings could only begin at twilight, were natural double-bill venues, and exploitation pictures stayed paired on their screens into the 1970s.
the first-run double feature disappeared by the mid-1960s, taking continuous screenings with it; a few repertory houses, and the astor theatre in melbourne, showing doubles since 1936, kept the form alive. quentin tarantino and robert rodriguez revived it for the grindhouse double bill grindhouse (2007), two features joined by fake trailers.
related profiles; Movie Theaters, The Golden Age of Hollywood, Movie Studios
sources; double feature, b movie, american international pictures, united states v. paramount pictures, drive-in theater
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