Blockbuster (entertainment)
A blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studios, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production ''intended'' for "blockbuster" status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it. Etymology The term began to appear in the American press in the early 1940s, referring to the blockbuster bombs, aerial munitions capable of destroying a whole block of buildings. Its first known use in reference to films was in May 1943, when advertisements in '' Variety'' and '' Motion Picture Herald'' described the RKO film, '' Bombardier'', as "The block-buster of all action-thrill-service shows!" Another trade advertisement in 1944 boasted that the war documentary, '' With the Marines at Tarawa'', "hits the heart like a two t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Crowds Line Up To See "Gone With The Wind" In Pensacola, Florida (1947)
A crowd is as a group of people that have gathered for a common purpose or intent. Examples are a Demonstration (people), demonstration, a Sport, sports event, or a looting (classified in sociology as an acting crowd). A crowd may also simply be made up of many people going about their business in a busy area. The term "the crowd" may sometimes refer to the lower orders of people in general. Terminology The term "crowd" is sometimes defined in contrast to other group nouns for collections of humans or animals, such as aggregation, audience, group, mass, mob, populous, public, rabble and throng. Opinion researcher Vincent Price (educator), Vincent Price compares masses and crowds, saying that "Crowds are defined by their shared emotional experiences, but masses are defined by their interpersonal isolation."''Public Opinion'', by Carroll J. Glynn, Susan Herbst, Garrett J. O'Keefe, Robert Y. Shapiro In human sociology, the term "mobbed" simply means "extremely wikt:crowded, c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Birth Of A Nation
''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 American Silent film, silent Epic film, epic Drama (film and television), drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, The Clansman''. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken. ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. It was the first Serial film, non-serial American 12-Film reel, reel film ever made. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the American Civil War, Civil War and Reconstruction era, Reconstruction eras over the course of several years—the pro-Union (American Civil War), Union (Northern United States, Northern) Stonemans and the pro-Confederate States of America, Con ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Star Wars (film)
''Star Wars'' (later retitled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'') is a 1977 American Epic film, epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and released by Twentieth Century-Fox. It is the first film in the ''Star Wars'' franchise and the fourth chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set in Universe of Star Wars, a fictional galaxy under the rule of the tyrannical Galactic Empire (Star Wars), Galactic Empire, the film follows a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance, who aim to destroy the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star. When the rebel leader Princess Leia is captured by the Empire, Luke Skywalker acquires stolen architectural plans of the Death Star and sets out to rescue her while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The cast includes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Bak ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blockbuster (2004 Book)
Tom Shone is an American film critic and writer. He was the ''Sunday Times'' film critic from 1994 to 1999 and has written for '' Vogue'', ''Slate'', the ''New Yorker'', the ''New York Times'' and ''The Guardian''. He is the author of ''Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer'', published in 2004 by Simon & Schuster. The book is an analysis of the Hollywood blockbuster phenomenon driven chiefly by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in the 1970s, based on interviews with these and other filmmakers. Shone's first novel, ''In the Rooms'' was published in the U.K. by Hutchinson on July 2, 2009 and in the U.S. by St Martin's Press in 2011. He also wrote the books ''Martin Scorsese: A Retrospective'' and ''Woody Allen: A retrospective'', published in 2014 and 2015. Shone collaborated with Christopher Nolan for an in-depth look at the filmmaker's work, called ''The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan'' (2020). ''Library ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tom Shone
Tom Shone is an American film critic and writer. He was the ''Sunday Times'' film critic from 1994 to 1999 and has written for '' Vogue'', ''Slate'', the '' New Yorker'', the ''New York Times'' and ''The Guardian''. He is the author of ''Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer'', published in 2004 by Simon & Schuster. The book is an analysis of the Hollywood blockbuster phenomenon driven chiefly by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in the 1970s, based on interviews with these and other filmmakers. Shone's first novel, ''In the Rooms'' was published in the U.K. by Hutchinson on July 2, 2009 and in the U.S. by St Martin's Press in 2011. He also wrote the books ''Martin Scorsese: A Retrospective'' and ''Woody Allen: A retrospective'', published in 2014 and 2015. Shone collaborated with Christopher Nolan for an in-depth look at the filmmaker's work, called ''The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan'' (2020). ''Librar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marketing Buzz
Marketing buzz or simply buzz—a term used in viral marketing—is the interaction of consumers and users with a product or service which amplifies or alters the original marketing message. This emotion, energy, excitement, or anticipation about a product or service can be positive or negative. Buzz can be generated by intentional marketing activities by the brand owner or it can be the result of an independent event that enters public awareness through social or traditional media such as newspapers. Marketing buzz originally referred to oral communication but in the age of Web 2.0, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are now the dominant communication channels for marketing buzz. Strategies Some of the common tactics used to create buzz include building suspense around a launch or event, creating a controversy, or reaching out to bloggers and social media influencers. Social media participants in any particular virtual community can be divided into thre ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jaws (film)
''Jaws'' is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg. Based on Jaws (novel), the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley, it stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw (actor), Robert Shaw), hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a summer resort town. Murray Hamilton plays the mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography. Shot mostly on location at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts from May to October 1974, ''Jaws'' was the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean and consequently had a troubled production, going over budget and schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks often malfunctioned, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the shark's presence, employing an omi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Routledge
Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioral science, behavioural science, education, law, and social science. The company publishes approximately 1,800 journals and 5,000 new books each year and their backlist encompasses over 140,000 titles. Routledge is claimed to be the largest global academic publisher within humanities and social sciences. In 1998, Routledge became a subdivision and Imprint (trade name), imprint of its former rival, Taylor & Francis, Taylor & Francis Group (T&F), as a result of a £90-million acquisition deal from Cinven, a venture capital group which had purchased it two years previously for £25 million. Following the merger of Informa and T&F in 2004, Routledge became a publishing unit and major imprint within the Informa "academic publishing ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola ( ; born April 7, 1939) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. List of awards and nominations received by Francis Ford Coppola, Coppola is the recipient of five Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Palme d'Or, Palmes d'Or, in addition to nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. Coppola was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 2010, the Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy Center Honors in 2024, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2025. Coppola started his career directing ''The Rain People'' (1969) and co-writing ''Patton (film), Patton'' (1970), the latter of which earned him and Edmund H. North the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Coppola's reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of ''The Godfather'' (1972) and ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974) which bo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academy Award, four British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. Four of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Scorsese received a Master of Arts degree from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 1968. His directorial debut, ''Who's That Knocking at My Door'' (1967), was accepted into the Chicago Film Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s, Martin Scorsese filmography, Scorsese's films, much influenced by his Italian Americans, Italian-American background and upbringing in New York City, centered on macho-pos ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to the Walt Disney Company in 2012. Nominated for four Academy Awards, he is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster (entertainment), blockbuster. Despite this, he has remained an independent filmmaker away from Hollywood for most of his career. After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas moved to San Francisco and co-founded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. He wrote and directed ''THX 1138'' (1971), based on his student short ''Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB'', which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was ''Am ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is the highest-grossing film director of all time. Several of Spielberg's works are considered among the greatest films in history, and some are among the highest-grossing films ever. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. He moved to California and studied film in college. After directing several episodes for television, including '' Night Gallery'' and '' Columbo'', he directed the television film ''Duel'' (1971), which was approved by Barry Diller. He made his theatrical debut with '' The Sugarland Express'' (1974) and became a household name with the summer blockbuster ''Jaws'' (1975). He directed more escapist box office successes with '' Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977), '' E.T. the Ext ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |