From Publishers Weekly
Shone's first book is an entertaining chronological survey of top-grossing films during the past 30 summers, beginning with Universal's
Jaws (1975). The Steven Spielberg film became a phenomenon, breaking the $100-million mark. When movie attendance was at an all-time low in the early 1970s, Shone explains, studios had been keeping costs down, but they changed that tactic and began spending more and developing new marketing and merchandising methods. It worked. By that decade's end, box office returns had tripled, due to 22 films, each earning more than $50 million. Ticket sales soared as Paramount went from
The Godfather to
Grease, Fox launched
Star Wars and Columbia scored with
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. To trace the evolution of summer blockbuster films through three decades, Shone, former London
Sunday Times film critic, interviewed more than 40 talents, including Spielberg, John Lasseter, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver and Richard Zanuck. He devotes full chapters to
Titanic ("the world's first billion-dollar blockbuster") and other "event movies." Although reams have been published about such films as
Alien and
Blade Runner, Shone writes with verve, producing a probing, intelligent analysis. Photos.
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In the mid-1970s, while Hollywood was parading stars in one disaster film after another, Steven Spielberg broke things wide open with the release of
Jaws. By today's standards, the movie used cheesy special effects, mainly a rubber shark, and the beast doesn't even appear until 80 minutes into the film. But it became the first of the big summer blockbusters, a true phenomenon that people went to see over and over. Shone, an international film critic, takes us on a tour of 30 years of blockbuster movies, showing how the industry went from pure luck to deliberately manufacturing blockbuster hits, so-called high-concept movies backed by big-name directors, megastars, and special effects, costing upward of $100 million. He goes behind the scenes on such films as
Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Alien, Titanic, and
Jurassic Park, through the pitches, the rewrites, and the extensive marketing machine. Although the reader may bemoan how one of America's greatest art forms has been reduced to entertainment aimed at 13-year-olds, Shone's biting analyses are on target.
David SiegfriedCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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