Noun
The reservation of a large number of hotel rooms, tickets, etc. at one time.
The restaurant has a block booking for Saturday night.
(film industry, historical) The sale of multiple films to a theater as a unit, sight unseen, allowing the studio to package inferior films with more popular ones.
Source: en.wiktionary.orgblock-booking
1941–1950: United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. In 1940, Paramount agreed to a government-instituted consent decree: block booking and "pre-selling" (the practice of collecting up-front money for films not yet in production) would end. Source: Internet
With so many important players, Paramount was able to introduce " block booking ", which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. Source: Internet
Such were the benefits of having a huge theater chain to fill, and of block booking to persuade other chains to go along. Source: Internet