In the world of theatrical film exhibition, a pressbook was a promotional tool created and distributed by film distributors in order to market their films. Sometimes called "campaign manuals," most pressbooks took the form of large, multi-page brochures that were mailed to movie theaters in the interest of helping theaters attract an audience. A typical pressbook contained images of the various advertising "accessories" available to promote a movie, including images of the available

film poster A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. The ...

s, lobby cards, and 8 x 10 film stills. They also contained the various newspaper advertisements exhibitor could employ in local newspaper advertising as well as short, feature pieces that could be planted in local

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s, usually without cost. During Hollywood's

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

, pressbooks also contained various ideas for so-called exploitation campaigns, including

souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

-style give-aways,

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prop ...

s and contests, as well as live promotional stunts. Most pressbooks also contained a list of the film's cast and crew credits (probably to assist local film critics.) A movie pressbook should be distinguished from a press book, which is a collection of works and communications used to represent an individual, group of individuals, service, company or product. Such press books are usually associated with professionals in the graphic arts, etc. but are used by people in many other professions as well.

References

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'No war, no hate, no propaganda': promoting films about European war and fascism during the period of American isolationism
,

Alan Rostron Alan may refer to: People * Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' ...

, ''

Journal of Popular Film and Television ''Journal of Popular Film and Television'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge, which purchased it from Heldref Publications in 2009. Michael Marsden, who was the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Northern M ...

'', Summer 2002. Promotion and marketing communications {{Marketing-stub