Summary of: The Promise is Great

This week we were asked to read a piece of text about a type of movie dubbed "Blockbusters".
This is what I learnt from it;

In the late 1940's and early 50's due to the baby boom, financial struggles, TV and scandals concerning movie stars people were becoming less inclined to seek entertainment at the cinema. This lead to the cinemas trying to beat that by creating bigger, better and more expensive movies.

The first movie to advertise on TV and premier at a large amount of cinemas was Jaws, possibly the first blockbuster.

Blockbusters cost a lot to make and advertise, they need to guarantee success so they operate at a profit rather than a loss.

Things that define a blockbuster;
Born from US pop culture
Targeted at the mass public, particularly young people.
Few artistic expectations
Contain enthralling situations and characters
Uninnovative and simple narratives
Call themselves "Must see!" They promise something great.
Commercial, generates merchandise.
High concept, can be summarised in one sentence or image to stick in peoples minds.
Effects are better than the actual story.
They tend to produce sequels or are already known from another media.
Sometimes rely on star power.
They are trendy to go see.
Very expensive to make and advertise.

I believe if the movie you are going to see next has a large number of these things in it, it could be called a blockbuster.

Because these movies are so expensive and absolutely need to make a profit they really rely on making a lot of money in opening week. To do this they make their movie a must see and advertise heavily the week before the opening night.

The internet has made it difficult for these movies to do as well, particularly if they're crap. It allows people to tell each other about the movie much quicker and if the movie is bad it may the ruin the chances of it doing well.

And that is what I got from the text.