ABSTRACT
The term “blockbuster” can be a misleading one. Historically, there have been several different types of blockbusters and each type has been connected to a different type of exhibition. For example, after World War II, the blockbuster referred to prestigious event movies that were associated largely with big, metropolitan picture palaces (Schatz 1993). It is therefore significant that, when the Nottingham Odeon was redesigned in the 1960s, it not only became the first twin-screen cinema in Britain, but the upstairs cinema, Odeon 1, was clearly designed with these films in mind. It was to “show the 70 mm, wide-screen films” while downstairs, in Odeon 2, “continuous performances in ordinary 35 mm” were to be shown. As this suggests, the shows in Odeon 1 would be “on a bookable basis” due to the use of separate performances, a supposed “‘first’ for Nottingham” (Guardian Journal, 30 June, 1965: 4). 1
