This essay provides an analysis of the American film industry's fleeting foray in 1979 into roller disco movie production, countering prevailing notions about the conditions which underwrite surges in production of given types of film. Whereas scholars and commentators usually suggest production trends are by-products of preoccupation with topical discourse or a response to a single hit film, this essay suggests that they are determined by industry decision-makers' perceptions of the profit potential of a given type of film, of its profit potential relative to that of other types of film, and of its capacity to maintain the profitability of the supply chain linking producers to consumers.