1st Edition

Movie Blockbusters

By Julian Stringer Copyright 2003
    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    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

    Introduction Julian Stringer, University of Nottingham, The New Hollywood Thomas Schatz Part I: Industry Matters 1. Hollywood Blockbusters: Historical Dimensions Steve Neale, Sheffield Hallam University 2. Following the Money in Amercia's Sunniest Company Town: Some notes on the political economy of Hollywood Blockbusters Jon Lewis 3. The Hollywood Blockbuster: Industrial Analysis and Practice Douglas Gomery, University of Maryland 4. The Role of the Auteur in the Age of the Blockbuster: Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks Warren Buckland, Liverpool John Moores University Part II: Exploring Spectacle 5. Talking About a Revolution: The Blockbuster as Industrial Advertisement Michael Allen, Birkbeck College 6. Spectacle Narrative and the Spectacular Hollywood Blockbuster Geoff King 7. 'Want to Take a Rice?': Reflections on the Blockbuster Experience in Contact (1997) Peter Kramer 8. Blockbusting Sound: The Case of The Fugitive Gianluca Sergi Part III: Establishing Cultural Status 9. Circulations of Taste: Titanic, The Oscars and the Middle Brow Gillian Roberts 10. Sex, Controversy, Box-office: from Blockbuster to Bonkbuster Rebecca Feasey University of Nottingham 11. Star wars in Fandom, Film Theory and the Museum: the Cultural Status of the Cult Blockbuster Matt Hills, Cardiff University 12. ^The Best Place to See a Film: the Blockbuster, the Multiplex and the Contexts of Consumption Mark Jancovich, University of Nottingham and Lucy Faire 13. Neither One Thing Nor the Other: Blockbusters at Film Festivals Julian Stringer Part IV: The Blockbuster in the International Frame 14. What's Big about the Big Film?: 'De-westernising' the Blockbuster in Korea and China Chris Berry, University of California Berkeley 15. Once Were Warriors: New Zealand's First Indigenous Blockbuster Kirsten Moana Thompson, Wayne State University 16. Television for the Big Screen: How ComodinesN Became Argentina's First Blockbuster Phenomenon amara L. Falicov, University of Kansas 17. Locating Bollywood: Notes on the Hindi Blockbuster 1975 to the Present Andrew Willis, University of Salford

    Biography

    Julian Stringer