Download or read book Bigger Than Blockbusters written by James Roman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-02-17 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether it's the hum drum existence of Marion Crane and her illicit love affair, the psychotic antics of Norman Bates, the sudden irrational migration of birds, a crop duster swooping down on Roger Thornhill in the middle of nowhere, or Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace's unforgettable dance at Jack Rabbit Slim's - they are all cinematic moments that forever changed the psyche and viewing experience of American audiences. Bigger Than Blockbusters: Movies That Defined America tells the stories behind the most significant and influential films in American culture, movies that have had a profound influence on the literary, cinematic and popular culture of our time. Arranged chronologically, the volume gives readers an opportunity to place the films within the context of the social and cultural historic dynamic of the time, making this an ideal source for student papers and reports. Each entry includes the filmmaker, actors, release information, a synopsis of the film, critics' reviews, awards, current availability, and then background on the making of the film in an artistic, economic, and technological context. Spanning all genres, including horror and drama, adventure, comedy, musicals, science fiction, and more, this volume is loaded with enough trivia and factoids to satisfy even the most die-hard movie buff. Also included are other Greatest Films compilations from the National Society of Film Critics and noteworthy sources for comparative purposes. Guaranteed to inspire forays into film favorites as well as some very lively debate, this resource is essential reading for film lovers and students alike.

Download or read book Movie Blockbusters written by Julian Stringer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big-budget, spectacular films designed to appeal to a mass audience: is this what - or all - blockbusters are? Movie Blockbusters brings together writings from key film scholars, including Douglas Gomery, Peter Kramer, Jon Lewis and Steve Neale, to address the work of notable blockbuster auteurs such as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, discuss key movies such as Star Wars and Titanic, and consider the context in which blockbusters are produced and consumed, including what the rise of the blockbuster says about the Hollywood film industry, how blockbusters are marketed and exhibited, and who goes to see them. The book also considers the movie scene outside Hollywood, discussing blockbusters made in Bollywood, China, South Korea, New Zealand and Argentina

Download or read book Hollywood Blockbusters written by David Sutton and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Certain Hollywood movies are now so deeply woven into the cultural fabric that lines of their dialogue - for example, 'Make him an offer he can't refuse' - have been incorporated into everyday discourse. The films explored in this book, which include The Godfather, Jaws, The Big Lebowski, Field of Dreams and The Village, have become important cultural myths, fascinating windows into the schisms, tensions, and problems of American culture. Hollywood Blockbusters: The Anthropology of Popular Movies uses anthropology to understand why these movies have such enduring appeal in this age of fragmented audiences and ever-faster spin cycles. Exploring key anthropological issues from ritual, kinship, gift giving and totemism to literacy, stereotypes, boundaries and warfare, this fascinating book uncovers new insights into the significance of modern film classics for students of Film, Media, Anthropology and American Cultural Studies.

Download or read book Screening Difference written by Jaap van Ginneken and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2007 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that Pocahontas probably never fell in love with John Smith, as the Disney and other film versions of those events pretend? That Godzilla was originally an anti-American and anti-nuclear movie, heavily cut and supplemented with new material? That Zorro was not created by an American author but derived from the much older Mexican struggle for independence? That Anna and the King was largely invented? That the myth of the sexually eager Hula girls is based on misunderstandings by the first explorers? That Black Hawk Down and many other war movies were censored and indirectly subsidized by the Pentagon? Screening Difference takes us on a fascinating voyage through major movie blockbusters that deal with the encounter between "us," based on white Hollywood, and "them," the filmic representations of other races, ethnicities, and cultures. Looking at subtle orientations in casting and make-up, sets and props, lighting and camera movements, music and language, this lively book follows the best-known genres and subgenres: from animated cartoons to wilderness films, from romantic movies to colonial adventures. Screening Difference tracks the stories back to their origins and patiently dissects the hidden messages that have gradually crept into them.

Download or read book Blockbuster written by Tom Shone and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-12-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's a typical summer Friday night and the smell of popcorn is in the air. Throngs of fans jam into air-conditioned multiplexes to escape for two hours in the dark, blissfully lost in Hollywood's latest glittery confection complete with megawatt celebrities, awesome special effects, and enormous marketing budgets. The world is in love with the blockbuster movie, and these cinematic behemoths have risen to dominate the film industry, breaking box office records every weekend. With the passion and wit of a true movie buff and the insight of an internationally renowned critic, Tom Shone is the first to make sense of this phenomenon by taking readers through the decades that have shaped the modern blockbuster and forever transformed the face of Hollywood. The moment the shark fin broke the water in 1975, a new monster was born. Fast, visceral, and devouring all in its path, the blockbuster had arrived. In just a few weeks Jaws earned more than $100 million in ticket sales, an unprecedented feat that heralded a new era in film. Soon, blockbuster auteurs such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and James Cameron would revive the flagging fortunes of the studios and lure audiences back into theaters with the promise of thrills, plenty of action, and an escape from art house pretension. But somewhere along the line, the beast they awakened took on a life of its own, and by the 1990s production budgets had escalated as quickly as profits. Hollywood entered a topsy-turvy world ruled by marketing and merchandising mavens, in which flops like Godzilla made money and hits had to break records just to break even. The blockbuster changed from a major event that took place a few times a year into something that audiences have come to expect weekly, piling into the backs of one another in an annual demolition derby that has left even Hollywood aghast. Tom Shone has interviewed all the key participants -- from cinematic visionaries like Spielberg and Lucas and the executives who greenlight these spectacles down to the effects wizards who detonated the Death Star and blew up the White House -- in order to reveal the ways in which blockbusters have transformed how Hollywood makes movies and how we watch them. As entertaining as the films it chronicles, Blockbuster is a must-read for any fan who delights in the magic of the movies.

Download or read book How To Make Blockbuster Movies And Do It On Your Own written by Tom Getty and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How To Make Blockbuster Movies And Do It On Your Own" shows you how to make epic, blockbuster movies wherever you are, whoever you are, and with however little money you have.

Download or read book Blockbuster Performances written by Daniel Smith-Rowsey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines performances in the American film industry’s highest-earning and most influential films. Countering decades of discourse and the conventional notion that special effects are the real stars of Hollywood blockbusters, this book finds that the acting performances in these big-budget action movies are actually better, and more genre-appropriate, than reputed. It argues that while blockbusters are often edited for speed, thrills, and simplicity, and performances are sometimes tailored to this style, most major productions feature more scenes of stage-like acting than hyper-kinetic action. Knowing this, producers of the world’s highest-budgeted motion pictures usually cast strong or generically appropriate actors. With chapters offering unique readings of some of cinema’s biggest hits, such as The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Iron Man and The Hunger Games, this unprecedented study sheds new light on the importance of performance in the Hollywood blockbuster.

Download or read book Epics Spectacles and Blockbusters written by Sheldon Hall and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considers the history of the American blockbuster-the large-scale, high-cost film-as it evolved from the 1890s to today.

Download or read book A Dictionary of Film Studies written by Annette Kuhn and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-06-21 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by experts in the field, this dictionary covers all aspects of film studies, including terms, concepts, debates, and movements in film theory and criticism, national, international and transnational cinemas, film history, film movements and genres, film industry organizations and practices, and key technical terms and concepts in 500 detailed entries. Most entries also feature recommendations for further reading and a large number also have web links. The web links are listed and regularly updated on a companion website that complements the printed book. The dictionary is international in its approach, covering national cinemas, genres, and film movements from around the world such as the Nouvelle Vague, Latin American cinema, the Latsploitation film, Bollywood, Yiddish cinema, the spaghetti western, and World cinema. The most up-to-date dictionary of its kind available, this is a must-have for all students of film studies and ancillary subjects, as well as an informative read for cinephiles and for anyone with an interest in films and film criticism.

Download or read book Hollywood Blockbusters written by David Sutton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do 'Jaws', 'Field of Dreams', 'The Big Lebowski', and 'The Godfather' remain strikingly popular in this age of fragmented audiences and ever-faster spin cycles? "Hollywood Blockbusters: The Anthropology of Popular Movies" argues that these films continue to captivate audiences because they play upon underlying tensions and problems in American culture, much like the myths that anthropologists study in non-Western contexts. In making this argument, the authors employ and extend anthropological theories about ritual, kinship, gift giving, power, egalitarianism, literacy, metalinguistics, stereotypes, and the mysteries of the Other. The results - original insights into modern film classics, American culture, and anthropological theory - will appeal to students of Film, Media, Anthropology, Sociology, and Cultural Studies.

Download or read book Blockbusters written by Anita Elberse and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the future of popular culture will revolve around ever bigger bets on entertainment products, by one of Harvard Business School's most popular professors What's behind the phenomenal success of entertainment businesses such as Warner Bros., Marvel Entertainment, and the NFL—along with such stars as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James? Which strategies give leaders in film, television, music, publishing, and sports an edge over their rivals? Anita Elberse, Harvard Business School's expert on the entertainment industry, has done pioneering research on the worlds of media and sports for more than a decade. Now, in this groundbreaking book, she explains a powerful truth about the fiercely competitive world of entertainment: building a business around blockbuster products—the movies, television shows, songs, and books that are hugely expensive to produce and market—is the surest path to long-term success. Along the way, she reveals why entertainment executives often spend outrageous amounts of money in search of the next blockbuster, why superstars are paid unimaginable sums, and how digital technologies are transforming the entertainment landscape. Full of inside stories emerging from Elberse's unprecedented access to some of the world's most successful entertainment brands, Blockbusters is destined to become required reading for anyone seeking to understand how the entertainment industry really works—and how to navigate today's high-stakes business world at large.

Download or read book Audience ology written by Kevin Goetz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the fascinating and secretive process of audience testing of Hollywood movies through these firsthand stories from famous filmmakers, studio heads, and stars. Audience-ology takes you to one of the most unknown places in Hollywood—a place where famous directors are reduced to tears and multi-millionaire actors to fits of rage. A place where dreams are made and fortunes are lost. From “the best in the business” (Sacha Baron Cohen), this book is the chronicle of how real people have written and rewritten America’s cinematic masterpieces by showing up, watching a rough cut of a new film, and giving their unfettered opinions so that directors and studios can salvage their blunders, or better yet, turn their movies into all-time classics. Each chapter informs an aspect or two of the test-screening process and then, through behind-the-scenes stories, illustrates how that particular aspect was carried out. Nicknamed “the doctor of audience-ology,” Kevin Goetz shares how he helped filmmakers and movie execs confront the misses and how he recommended ways to fix the blockbusters, as well as first-hand accounts from Ron Howard, Cameron Crowe, Ed Zwick, Renny Harlin, Jason Blum, and other Hollywood luminaries who brought you such films as La La Land, Chicago, Titanic, Wedding Crashers, Jaws, and Forrest Gump. Audience-ology explores one of the most important (and most underrated) steps in the filmmaking process with enough humor, drama, and surprise to entertain those with only a spectator’s interest in film, offering us a new look at movie history.

Download or read book Information Blockbusters and Stars a Study of the Motion Pictures Industry written by S. Abraham Ravid and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first part of the paper, we explore two alternative explanations for the role of stars in the movie business. The first approach is that informed insiders signal project quality by hiring an expensive star. The second is the quot;rent capturequot; hypothesis, namely, that stars receive their marginal value.The second part of the paper tests these hypotheses on a sample of movies produced in the early 90's. Means tests seems to support the industry notion that stars are associated with higher revenues. However, regression analysis only supports the notion that big budgets bring in more revenues, but not a higher return on investment. Stars do not seem to signal either revenues or return on investment. Revenues are also higher for sequels, for family oriented films, and for films that had more reviews. Return on investment is higher for G and PG rated movies, and is marginally higher for sequels. This set of results supports the quot;rent capturequot; hypothesis.

Download or read book American Blockbuster written by Charles R. Acland and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-24 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ben-Hur (1959), Jaws (1975), Avatar (2009), Wonder Woman (2017): the blockbuster movie has held a dominant position in American popular culture for decades. In American Blockbuster Charles R. Acland charts the origins, impact, and dynamics of this most visible, entertaining, and disparaged cultural form. Acland narrates how blockbusters emerged from Hollywood's turn to a hit-driven focus during the industry's business crisis in the 1950s. Movies became bigger, louder, and more spectacular. They also became prototypes for ideas and commodities associated with the future of technology and culture, accelerating the prominence of technological innovation in modern American life. Acland shows that blockbusters continue to be more than just movies; they are industrial strategies and complex cultural machines designed to normalize the ideologies of our technological age.

Download or read book The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures written by Paul Fischer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the New York Times Best True Crime of 2022 A “spellbinding, thriller-like” (Shelf Awareness) history about the invention of the motion picture and the mysterious, forgotten man behind it—detailing his life, work, disappearance, and legacy. The year is 1888, and Louis Le Prince is finally testing his “taker” or “receiver” device for his family on the front lawn. The device is meant to capture ten to twelve images per second on film, creating a reproduction of reality that can be replayed as many times as desired. In an otherwise separate and detached world, occurrences from one end of the globe could now be viewable with only a few days delay on the other side of the world. No human experience—from the most mundane to the most momentous—would need to be lost to history. In 1890, Le Prince was granted patents in four countries ahead of other inventors who were rushing to accomplish the same task. But just weeks before unveiling his invention to the world, he mysteriously disappeared and was never seen or heard from again. Three and half years later, Thomas Edison, Le Prince’s rival, made the device public, claiming to have invented it himself. And the man who had dedicated his life to preserving memories was himself lost to history—until now. The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures pulls back the curtain and presents a “passionate, detailed defense of Louis Le Prince…unfurled with all the cliffhangers and red herrings of a scripted melodrama” (The New York Times Book Review). This “fascinating, informative, skillfully articulated narrative” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) presents the never-before-told history of the motion picture and sheds light on the unsolved mystery of Le Prince’s disappearance.

Download or read book Spectacular Narratives written by Geoff King and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2000-11-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the appeal of the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster? The sheer scale and impact of big special effects sequences is part of the attraction of films such as Independence Day, Jurassic Park, Titanic or Mission Impossible. But they also offer other appeals, including the dynamics of narrative. Spectacular Narratives is the first serious book-length treatment of the contemporary blockbuster, including the digital-effects-based spectacle, space fictions, the action film, war spectaculars, the recent wave of disaster movies and films evoking new technologies such as virtual reality. Consideration is also given to the impact of profitable spin-offs such as film-related theme park rides and computer games. Geoff King argues against the view that an emphasis on the spectacular has led to an erosion of the importance of narrative in Hollywood. Instead, he suggests, even the most spectacular and effects-led contemporary blockbuster offers a blend of appeals, mixing elements of spectacle and narrative. Narrative is explored at the levels of both linear story-telling and underlying thematic patterns, a particular emphasis being placed on the persistence of elements of the myth/ideology of the American frontier. Close textual analysis is combined with consideration of the industrial and social contexts of contemporary Hollywood in a readable, original and rewarding book on the cinema that dominates markets across the globe.

Download or read book Movie Blockbusters written by Mark Stewart and published by Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP. This book was released on 2009-08-07 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every weekend, new movies hit local theaters. Only a select few, however, become true classics. People around the world watch these films again and again, and new generations continually discover them. From The Wizard of Oz to Lord of the Rings, this book highlights 10 of the biggest blockbusters in Hollywood history.