Meaning
The most prominent place in a list of credits, on a poster or in advertising; by extension the status of star treatment, being named first and biggest in any enterprise. Born in showbusiness advertising, it now covers politicians, brands, cities and causes competing for headline prominence, and losing it gets as much comment as winning it. Neutral but showbiz-flavoured; figurative uses often carry a whiff of hype or public-relations staging. Regional use: General English, originally American (theatrical and film origin).
Origin
Billing is showbusiness shorthand for where a performer's name sits on the bill, the poster or programme that listed the entertainment. Ordering names by drawing power was standard practice on nineteenth-century playbills, but the abstract noun is younger and American: the OED dates this sense of 'billing' to 1913, 'star billing' to 1910 and 'top billing' itself to 1917, first evidenced in the Portland (Maine) Evening Express. The phrase came of age with Hollywood, where billing became a contract item - above-the-title placement, staggered diagonal compromises such as The Towering Inferno (1974), and celebrated stand-offs from Tracy and Gable to Nicholson's demands on Batman (1989). The figurative use, giving any person or thing the headline position, simply extends the poster logic to every other field.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- above-the-title billing
- get top billing
- receive top billing
- star billing
Usage Examples
- The young architect shared top billing with the firm's founder at the Venice exhibition.
- Climate finance received top billing on the summit agenda, ahead of trade and security.
- A character actor for forty years, he finally earned top billing in a quiet film about lighthouse keepers.