Epics, Spectacles and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History by Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale
Published by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 2010
376 pages
Review by Adrian Smith
It is often assumed in popular film history that the craze amongst movie studios for the Hollywood blockbuster began with the success of Jaws in 1975, and was cemented by George Lucas with Star Wars in 1977. Hall and Neale, in this fascinating new book, demonstrate that the blockbuster has actually been around since the days of silent movies. And it is not just the epic spectacle of huge sets and casts of thousands that set these out as blockbusters, but also the way studios handled their directors and stars, production budgets, marketing and release patterns. Some films would become roadshow pictures, meaning they would have an extended run (sometimes for over a year) in a limited number of cinemas before being rolled out across the country. It was treated like a theatrical production, where people booked seats in advance. During the 1960s, inspired in part by the successes of independent companies like AIP with their mass drive-in products, studios began to adopt a showcase strategy, where the film would show in some key cities and first-run theatres whilst simultaneously opening on a regional-saturation basis. The book explains in great detail both the highs and lows that studios and producers went through. They have uncovered a lot of financial information which makes this book an excellent resource for anyone conducting their own research into Hollywood history. It also provides some perceptive insight into the cinema-going habits of filmgoers fifty years ago. Before Alfred Hitchcock insisted that latecomers not be allowed in to screenings of Psycho (1960), it was common practice for movie theatres to not have specific show times. People would just turn up, and if the movie was halfway through, they would just remain in their seats and wait for the film to start again. When All About Eve (1950) was released scheduled performances were attempted, but the idea was abandoned after four days because of poor business and the reluctance of exhibitors to adopt it. It took another ten years before the idea really took hold with Psycho, and thanks to the success of that film (over $9 million domestic rental, more than ten times its production cost), it became more commonplace.
Epics, Spectacle and Blockbusters is primarily an academic book, with rather a plain cover and only a limited number of black and white illustrations, but it does contain a great deal of absorbing information and detail which is simply unavailable elsewhere. It should be compulsory reading for all heads of Hollywood studios today, in the hope that they may learn to avoid making some of the mistakes of their predecessors.
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