Abstract
This chapter investigates how the Australian film industry was historically shaped during its formative period by the block booking contract system, which flooded Australia cinema screens with popular American films. While the block booking strategy did not last, Australia’s obsession with American cinema did, to the point where exhibitors today are still dependent on filling their venues with the latest craze from America. By concentrating on the silent period of 1909–1927, this chapter discusses a number of significant shifts in film exhibition that transformed Australian cinema from an independent and self-sufficient industry into a local Hollywood.
Specifically, my responsibility was to provide the finances. I met with the bankers, and I explained to them what we were doing. I also passed on the story and cast of every picture. It was all actually one operation. I kept very busy with that. In addition, I had to establish branches all over the world, in England, Germany, Australia, the Far East. It was necessary to set up a foreign distribution system like the one we already had in America. That was quite an undertaking. 1
—Adolph Zukor, Paramount Pictures
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Acknowledgements
With sincere gratitude to Graham Shirley and the librarians at the AFI Research Collection at RMIT.
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Gaunson, S. (2018). American Cartel: Block Bookings and the Paramount Plan. In: Danks, A., Gaunson, S., Kunze, P. (eds) American–Australian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66676-1_10
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