Today, the word “blockbuster” has come into common parlance to refer to a big-budget film, mostly from major franchises such as Star Wars, Transformers, Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, The Matrix, Avatar, Harry Potter, Marvel or DC. But do you know where the term comes from and why it was applied to cinematic behemoths?
The story of the origin of the blockbuster
Before being coined by Hollywood production companies, the term blockbuster had a slightly less glamorous history. The word originally refers to a bomb used by the British Air Force during World War II.
Literally, this meant that an explosive device could destroy a group of houses: “block” means a block of houses and “buster” means to explode. Later, the term blockbuster was used by the American theater to designate a production that brought down the house and signed the death warrant for all other shows in town.
Also, in French, we can translate blockbuster as “barrack breakers”, but this expression is certainly much less influential. Blockbuster was taken over by American firms at the dawn of the 1950s, an era when the 7th art was doing quite poorly, competing with the advent of a small troubadours club: television! So cinema had to fight back by offering an increasingly impressive spectacle.
Make it louder than the TV
At this time the industry invested in new formats such as Cinérama, Vistavision, Technirama, SuperPanavision 70, Dynarama, Warnerscope or the famous Cinémascope. For example, Cinérama was made possible by three synchronized cameras, which gave an excessively wide effect, as in the film The Conquest of the West. Super products are then called Quo vadis, Gone with the Wind, Cleopatra, Spartacus and even Ben-Hur.
However, in 1975, the term blockbuster became popular and spread across the planet. That year, Steven Spielberg set out to revolutionize cinematic exploitation with Jaws!
Spielberg is a game changer
When the film was released in the summer of 1975, no one expected a tidal wave, but the feature film grossed $470 million on a budget of $7 million. That’s what a blockbuster is: a movie that wins everything and leaves the competition in the scraps. After this triumph, modern American studios quickly realized the benefits of releasing a blockbuster movie in the middle of summer.
The success of Jaws paved the way for director George Lucas’s Star Wars, which also made blockbuster history and became the first film to sell mass-produced merchandise. Meanwhile, A New Hope earned 775 million at the box office on an 11 million budget.
After such success, George Lucas immediately started working on the continuation of Star Wars. This is where we start talking about a franchise, not a blockbuster. In addition, the franchise has 2 advantages: on the one hand, the public finds familiar characters and the world. Studios, on the other hand, take less risk because the audience will be there to see the end of their story.
The era of banking stars
Then, in the 80s and 90s, we noticed that blockbusters were often worn by big stars like Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Today, it’s more focused on brands like DC Comics and Marvel, or established franchises like Mission: Impossible, Star Wars, Jurassic World, planet of the apes Or Pirates of the Caribbean.
Another major trend: blockbusters are trying to find actors little known to the general public to become the face of their sagas. Who knew Daniel Radcliffe, Chris Hemsworth or Daisy Ridley before they starred in blockbusters? Answer: Not many people.
Note that at first a movie was called a blockbuster because it was a hit in the theaters in a way that it wasn’t intended to be, and then Hollywood started making movies that were planned to be hits and we started calling those movies blockbusters. to be a hit in theaters. In these cases, we also talk about the “tent pole”, a term less known to the general public, but which also refers to this type of production.
This of course depends on the film’s budget and receipts, there is no real scale. And sometimes a studio plans everything to work and fails. Indeed, if blockbusters are often successful, there are times when there are failures, or even industrial disasters.
Learn from your failures
Obviously, we’re thinking of Disney, who spent a lot on John Carter even though the movie was a financial pit for the studio. (Today, the big-eared firm is returning to its roots after the failure of Indiana Jones 5 or Marvel, producing sequels that are less financially risky, notably Vice-Versa 2 or Moana 2, which explode at the box office). However, we have had examples where the failure has reached the point where the company went under!
This was the case of Carolco, the company that produced Terminator and Rambo; The latter went bankrupt after the blockbuster release of Pirate Island, the film collected only 18 million on a budget of 115. Since then, the lessons have been learned… Today, studios release about one blockbuster a month, and one a week. during the summer. The situation has changed in our French regions as well.
French blockbuster
Works like The Three Musketeers, Asterix and Obelix or the recent Count of Monte Cristo have shown that big-budget French-style films can also be hits. For example, the Diptych of the Musketeers attracted 6 million viewers, and Pier Nini’s Monte Cristo gathered 9.3 million curious people. Big luck to these blockbusters from the land of Moliere!
At the end of 2024, you will be able to find blockbusters in cinemas like Kraven The Hunter, The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, Mufasa or even Sonic 3. All this while waiting for Marvel’s big return with Captain America Brave New. World on February 12, followed by Thunderbolts on April 30.
Source: Allocine

Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.