B movie - Wikipedia. A B movie or B film is a low- budget commercial movie, but one that is not an arthouse film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less- publicized bottom half of a double feature (akin to B- sides for recorded music). Although the U. S.

B movie continues to be used in its broader sense to this day. In its post–Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides of the definition: on the one hand, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient; on the other, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity. In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low- budget science- fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1. Early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. Almost always shorter than the top- billed films they were paired with,[1] many had running times of 7. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners; individual B films were often ignored by critics. Latter- day B movies still sometimes inspire multiple sequels, but series are less common.

An exploitation film is a film that attempts to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low.

As the average running time of top- of- the- line films increased, so did that of B pictures. In its current usage, the term has somewhat contradictory connotations: it may signal an opinion that a certain movie is (a) a genre film with minimal artistic ambitions or (b) a lively, energetic film uninhibited by the constraints imposed on more expensive projects and unburdened by the conventions of putatively "serious" independent film. The term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher- budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation- style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie. From their beginnings to the present day, B movies have provided opportunities both for those coming up in the profession and others whose careers are waning. Celebrated filmmakers such as Anthony Mann and Jonathan Demme learned their craft in B movies. They are where actors such as John Wayne and Jack Nicholson first became established, and they have provided work for former A movie actors, such as Vincent Price and Karen Black.

Some actors, such as Bela Lugosi, Eddie Constantine and Pam Grier, worked in B movies for most of their careers. The term B actor is sometimes used to refer to a performer who finds work primarily or exclusively in B pictures.

L.A. Times entertainment news from Hollywood including event coverage, celebrity gossip and deals. View photo galleries, read TV and movie reviews and more. New York's guide to theater, restaurants, bars, movies, shopping, fashion, events, activities, things to do, music, art, books, clubs, tours, dance & nightlife. Read all the hottest movie news. Get all the latest updates on your favorite movies - from new releases to timeless classics, get the scoop on Moviefone. Not every movie gets a sequel. In fact, a few get spinoffs. These are the weirdest ones you've either never heard of or completely forgot about. Watch The Awakening Of Spring HD 1080P.

History[edit]Columbia's That Certain Thing (1. Soon, director Frank Capra's association with Columbia would help vault the studio toward Hollywood's major leagues.[2]In 1. Hollywood studio ranged from $1. Fox to $2. 75,0. 00 at Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer. That average reflected both "specials" that might cost as much as $1 million and films made quickly for around $5.

These cheaper films (not yet called B movies) allowed the studios to derive maximum value from facilities and contracted staff in between a studio's more important productions, while also breaking in new personnel.[3] Studios in the minor leagues of the industry, such as Columbia Pictures and Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), focused on exactly those sorts of cheap productions. Their movies, with relatively short running times, targeted theaters that had to economize on rental and operating costs, particularly small- town and urban neighborhood venues, or "nabes".

Even smaller production houses, known as Poverty Row studios, made films whose costs might run as low as $3,0. With the widespread arrival of sound film in American theaters in 1. A new programming scheme developed that would soon become standard practice: a newsreel, a short and/or serial, and a cartoon, followed by a double feature.

The second feature, which actually screened before the main event, cost the exhibitor less per minute than the equivalent running time in shorts. The majors' "clearance" rules favoring their affiliated theaters prevented the independents' timely access to top- quality films; the second feature allowed them to promote quantity instead.[5] The additional movie also gave the program "balance"—the practice of pairing different sorts of features suggested to potential customers that they could count on something of interest no matter what specifically was on the bill. The low- budget picture of the 1. B movie, of Hollywood's Golden Age.[6]Golden Age of Hollywood[edit]The major studios, at first resistant to the double feature, soon adapted.

All established B units to provide films for the expanding second- feature market. Block booking became standard practice: to get access to a studio's attractive A pictures, many theaters were obliged to rent the company's entire output for a season. With the B films rented at a flat fee (rather than the box office percentage basis of A films), rates could be set virtually guaranteeing the profitability of every B movie. The parallel practice of blind bidding largely freed the majors from worrying about their Bs' quality—even when booking in less than seasonal blocks, exhibitors had to buy most pictures sight unseen. Watch Blind Husbands Online. The five largest studios—Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Fox Film Corporation (2. Century Fox as of 1. Warner Bros., and RKO Radio Pictures (descendant of FBO)—also belonged to companies with sizable theater chains, further securing the bottom line.[7]Poverty Row studios, from modest outfits like Mascot Pictures, Tiffany Pictures, and Sono Art- World Wide Pictures down to shoestring operations, made exclusively B movies, serials, and other shorts, and also distributed totally independent productions and imported films.

In no position to directly block book, they mostly sold regional distribution exclusivity to "states rights" firms, which in turn peddled blocks of movies to exhibitors, typically six or more pictures featuring the same star (a relative status on Poverty Row).[8] Two "major- minors"—Universal Studios and rising Columbia Pictures—had production lines roughly similar to, though somewhat better endowed than, the top Poverty Row studios. In contrast to the Big Five majors, Universal and Columbia had few or no theaters, though they did have top- rank film distribution exchanges.[9]In the standard Golden Age model, the industry's top product, the A films, premiered at a small number of select first- run houses in major cities.