four-waller

English

Noun

four-waller (plural four-wallers)

1. (film, theater) A company that rents a cinema or theater under a four-wall arrangement.
   • 2009, Joshua Blu Buhs, Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend, page 155:

     With their audience's desires carefully measured and films made to match those desires, four-wallers then saturated local television markets with advertisements for their movies […]

2. (film, television) A studio consisting of buildings but little in the way of equipment.
   • 1979, American Cinematographer, volume 60, page 768:

     The sets and corridors were all built with very low ceilings. They were four-wallers, so that meant lighting through grills or hiding lights or having in-shot lamps. I think the look of the film is due to the nature of the sets […]

   • 2004, Robert Angell, Getting Into Films & Television, page 24:

     Now it is more common for studios to operate as 'four wallers', that is just the buildings with very limited supporting facilities and for all the personnel to be engaged by the production company.