Blockbuster (entertainment)

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This article refers to the theatrical slang term; for other uses see Blockbuster (disambiguation).

Blockbuster, as applied to film or theater, denotes a very popular and/or successful production. The term was originally derived from theater slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry. In a looser sense, it may mean any big-budget Hollywood movie with famous stars that dominates public attention, even if the movie is a financial dud.

The etymology of the term is uncertain; some histories cite it as originally referring to a play that is so successful that competing theaters on the block are "busted" and driven out of business; others claim a derivation from the nickname of a type of World War II-era bomb capable of destroying an entire city block. Still others note that the term may stem from crowds of people that might flock to line up for a hit play, perhaps stretching over several city blocks. Whatever its origin, the term quickly caught on as a way to describe a hit, and has subsequently been applied to productions other than plays and films, including novels and multimillion selling computer/console game titles. The Blockbuster Video company derived its name from the term.

The threshold for a blockbuster film in North America has often been placed at $100,000,000 in ticket sales, a mark first achieved by Steven Spielberg's Jaws. However, because of steady increases in ticket prices since the release of Jaws in 1975, the threshold for a blockbuster in the early 21st century is now generally set at $200 million; sometimes a distinction is made for U.S. and Canada revenue and worldwide revenue, with the "blockbuster" threshold defined as $200 Million in North America and/or $400 Million worldwide.

In response to the huge success of Jaws, many Hollywood producers attempted to create "event films" with wide commercial appeal. Film companies began greenlighting increasingly high budgeted films and relying extensively on massive advertising blitzes leading up to their theatrical release, thus ushering in the so-called "blockbuster era". Spielberg and director/producer George Lucas (whose 1977 film Star Wars was the most successful film of the decade) are the filmmakers most closely associated with the beginning of the blockbuster era. The focus on creating blockbusters grew so intense that a backlash occurred, with critics decrying the prevalence of a "blockbuster mentality" and lamenting dearth of personal, small-scale films. Many within Hollywood were wary of attempting to create blockbusters or event movies due to the high financial risk entailed in big-budget filmmaking. This debate prevailed for a long time after the successes of early blockbusters such as Jaws or Star Wars. Support inside Hollywood for the blockbuster genre increased measurably after the successes of the Batman series and Titanic.

However, when a film made on a low budget is particularly successful or exceeds the expectations of films in its genre, then those films are considered blockbusters as well. Examples include The Blair Witch Project (amateur-produced first person narrative film), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (non-English language foreign film), Fahrenheit 9/11 (political documentary film) and Borat: Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazhakstan (satirical documentary) all of which have made over $100 million each.

Since the late 1980s, it has become commonplace for 'event' movies to eschew opening credits and display just the title at the beginning. (Although this had been a sporadic practice in the past, it was not until the release of Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989 that it became an established form, with several such films quickly following.)