Research Essay Help on Blockbuster and High Concept Films

Introduction

The American film industry has continuously experienced changes in the production, writing, and acting of its film with the focus being to attract more audience and maximise revenue. This has seen the industry experiencing different eras with distinct characteristics particularly the mode of production, actors, and the creativity in the films. The New Hollywood era or Hollywood Renaissance (1967-1976) was a significant turning point characterised by the entrance of young, countercultural and film-school-educated filmmakers that revolutionised the industry. The Hollywood Renaissance was a period of creativity where filmmakers developed low concept films with numerous themes to attract the young generation.

The New Hollywood Era gave way to the Blockbuster Age of Hollywood (1975–1989) that emphasizes on marketing and spectacle instead of the creative freedom experienced in the previous period. The Blockbuster era is defined by its low-point of capitalist cultural production due to the impact of corporate power on creativity. This period abandoned the innovative and creative personnel in favour of a faceless economic institution that aims at maximising profitability by producing simple-storyline films to attract the masses (Evers, 2013). Indeed, the blockbuster era is described as mass audience blockbuster, unlike the New Hollywood period which is recognised as the middle-class art cinema. Although the Blockbuster Era welcomed a period of less creativity, it has revolutionised the Hollywood film industry and made it a billion dollar industry. In exploring why blockbuster and high concept films have dominated Hollywood, it is important to conceptualise the blockbuster and high concept film before examining the factors that make these films dominate Hollywood.

Conceptualisation

Blockbuster Films

Cucco (2009) state that blockbuster is the best audio-visual product to represent modern Hollywood. Apparently, blockbuster embraces a variety of genres making it difficult to single out its features. The blockbuster films trace their origin to the Second World War as the world implied large-scale bombs. Its use in the cinematographic field refers to large-size production with ‘size’ implying economic investment and revenue. This draws the definition or features of blockbuster films as movies characterised by high costs of production and good returns (Cucco, 2009). The blockbuster films emerged in a period where the dominant idea equated big/costly production to a better performance in the box office.

Although the blockbuster era rose in the 1970s, its origin dates back to the late 1940s and early 1950s during the Hollywood crisis (Schatz, 2013). At this time, people were migrating to the suburb areas where there were no theatres (Cucco, 2009).  Other factors causing the crisis include reduced cinematographic consumption by the baby boom, investment in durables, and birth of competing media, McCarthyism, as well as bad reputation of the cinema industry due to sexual scandals (Cucco, 2009). This led to the metamorphosis of the industry by reducing the number of films and focusing on big and expensive production. The focus on big production welcomed the use of high and advanced technology to counter competing media such as television. In return, this revived the theatre as a place for the best film experience and high-quality entertainment (Cucco, 2009). The modern blockbuster films draw influence from the 1970s era where they gained additional aspects over the investment facet. In the 1970s, blockbuster films embraced the new promotional process, genre selection, narrative component, and consumption as illustrated in the film Titanic. Therefore, blockbuster films can be conceptualised to have two distinctive features. Firstly, it has high investment and financial success that approaches, meets, or breaks box office records. Secondly, the production approach is designed and based on a formula that aims at attracting a wide audience through the prescription of the genre, exhibition practices, and the marketing technique.