Section 407.357

Title XXVI TRADE AND COMMERCE

Chapter 407

Effective - 28 Aug 1982   

  407.357.  Blind bidding permitted, when — invitation to bid, contents — license agreement voidable, damages. — Notwithstanding any other provisions of sections 407.350 to 407.357, a distributor of motion pictures may blind bid motion pictures based upon a play or review which has been performed for a period of not less than six months for the public, or based upon published manuscripts which are in the top ten best sellers in sales or manuscripts having sold at least five hundred thousand copies to the general public from the time of copyright, or based upon television or radio scripts which have been previously televised or broadcast on a national network to the public.  Provided, however, if a distributor solicits bids from exhibitors for the purposes of entering into a license agreement and engages in blind bidding for such solicitation, the invitation to bid shall be in writing and shall specify, in addition to any other information the distributor desires to convey to an exhibitor, the audience to which the motion picture is principally directed and the rating anticipated for the motion picture which shall be specified by using the rating system of the Classification and Rating Administration.  Blind bidding as provided for in section 407.353 and this section may only take place during the one-hundred-eighty-day period immediately preceding the designated release date of the motion picture which is the subject of the license agreement and no exhibitor shall forward any money to a distributor earlier than fourteen days immediately preceding the designated release date of the motion picture which is the subject of the license agreement.  A license agreement is voidable by the exhibitor if the released motion picture does not substantially conform to the information provided by the distributor about the motion picture in the invitation to bid, or if the rating given by the Classification and Rating Administration is more restrictive than the rating indicated by the distributor in the invitation to bid, and all money received by the distributor from the exhibitor before the release of the motion picture under the terms of the license agreement, shall be returned to the exhibitor within seven days.  All license agreements entered into as a result of blind bidding shall contain a provision stating the amount of damages payable to the exhibitor by the distributor in the event the license agreement is voided under the terms of this section.

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(L. 1982 S.B. 525 § 4)