Meaning of movie jail | Babel Free

Definitions

A state of derailment of a career or limited opportunities to which a film industry professional is seemingly relegated, usually as a result of making an unsuccessful film.

idiomatic, informal, uncountable

Examples

“"They have this term in Hollywood, movie jail. When a director does this horrible movie that fails, he's in movie jail, where they're not letting him make another movie again."”

“2016, June 10, "10 Actors Who Got Sent to Movie Jail", Screen Rant.”

“2019, April 15, Gabe Worgaftik, AV Club. "Movie jail is real. He's been there. He was excommunicated at Fox for a decade after turning down Speed 2 to go play Hamlet onstage in fucking Winnipeg."”

CEFR level