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Cinema Summers - Sky Movies
In May 1975, The Godfather was the highest grossithe-godfatherthe-godfatherng movie of all time. Four years after the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic mafia tale, no movie had come close to the worldwide box office success it garnered.
It would then come as something of a surprise that, come the summer of 75, a movie of The Godfather’s calibre would be knocked from its lofty perch by what appeared to be a simple popcorn movie.
As it transpired, this was not just a popcorn movie, but a seismic change in cinema and the way audiences view (and marketing departments sell) Hollywood productions.
That movie was Jaws.
It wasn’t so much that Spielberg’s tale of a shark looking for dinner off the coast of a small US town was capable of beating The Godfather’s success, more so the speed at which it happened.
The Godfather had been out for years, and Jaws raced past its box office take in less than 2 months. Three months after that, Jaws became the first movie ever to break the $100m barrier.
Ever since the release of Jaws, Hollywood has sought to re-capture that success with every passing summer. For Jaws was the first ‘summer blockbuster’ or 'event movie'.
From Star Wars to Independence Day, Hollywood has followed a path laid out by Spielberg and Universal. The idea was brilliant yet simple - to create a marketing campaign that depended on teasing the audience.
It’s an approach that has been honed over the years. So much so that a release schedule for posters now exists. First the Winter/ Spring teaser, with no sign of the movie’s title, before the slightly more information-friendly one-sheet appears. Then, as the movie reaches release, tell the audience what they’ve been missing.
Despite the incredible temperatures of 76, it would be two years before a studio managed to capture Spielberg’s summer, as 20th Century Fox nailed the marketing campaign for Star Wars, which dwarfed even the Jaws box office take.
And the years that followed reads like a veritable guide for blockbuster hits – Jaws 2, Alien, Empire Strikes back and Indiana Jones all appeared in subsequent years, as did the likes of E.T., and Star Trek.
More relevant to today is the fact that most of these movies not only came out in the summer, not only did they have superb marketing campaigns, but they largely had ready-made audiences.
Jaws, the novel, was the best selling book of 74, while Jaws 2, Empire and Star Trek were all based on previous incarnations, be it at the cinema or on TV.
What the success of Jaws did for studios is hard to quantify. More than just showing how to make a big summer movie, Jaws made so much money Universal needn’t have released another picture that year. Thus, the phrase ‘tentpole movie’ entered the producers’ lexicon.
Studios could now plan like never before. Find a movie with a ready-made audience (say, a computer game adaptation, a book or even a cartoon) double that audience with a clever ad campaign, and release at the height of the summer.
Today this approach allows studios to hit targets, meaning more, allegedly risky, ventures can be taken by their ‘independent’ arms (Fox Searchlight with Little Miss Sunshine for example).
In today’s terms, Indiana Jones IV, Prince Caspian and, The Dark Knight are all on the trajectory that fired Jaws into the stratosphere. Should the movie in question not be a sequel or adaptation, studios will require ready-made audiences from elsewhere, hence the paycheque Angelina Jolie’s likely to receive for Wanted.
Of course, the formula suffers from the sheer volume of movies that aim to achieve summer success. So many glossy, vacuous popcorn thrillers arrive in the months of June, July and August that it’s a veritable minefield of bullshit cinema.
Today, 33 years after Jaws thrilled in a way so many movies attempt to emulate, the best way for a studio to find a moment of quiet to attract attention in, they must wait
later in the year. Which is why winter is becoming the new summer.
It would then come as something of a surprise that, come the summer of 75, a movie of The Godfather’s calibre would be knocked from its lofty perch by what appeared to be a simple popcorn movie.
As it transpired, this was not just a popcorn movie, but a seismic change in cinema and the way audiences view (and marketing departments sell) Hollywood productions.
That movie was Jaws.
It wasn’t so much that Spielberg’s tale of a shark looking for dinner off the coast of a small US town was capable of beating The Godfather’s success, more so the speed at which it happened.
The Godfather had been out for years, and Jaws raced past its box office take in less than 2 months. Three months after that, Jaws became the first movie ever to break the $100m barrier.
Ever since the release of Jaws, Hollywood has sought to re-capture that success with every passing summer. For Jaws was the first ‘summer blockbuster’ or 'event movie'.
From Star Wars to Independence Day, Hollywood has followed a path laid out by Spielberg and Universal. The idea was brilliant yet simple - to create a marketing campaign that depended on teasing the audience.
It’s an approach that has been honed over the years. So much so that a release schedule for posters now exists. First the Winter/ Spring teaser, with no sign of the movie’s title, before the slightly more information-friendly one-sheet appears. Then, as the movie reaches release, tell the audience what they’ve been missing.
Despite the incredible temperatures of 76, it would be two years before a studio managed to capture Spielberg’s summer, as 20th Century Fox nailed the marketing campaign for Star Wars, which dwarfed even the Jaws box office take.
And the years that followed reads like a veritable guide for blockbuster hits – Jaws 2, Alien, Empire Strikes back and Indiana Jones all appeared in subsequent years, as did the likes of E.T., and Star Trek.
More relevant to today is the fact that most of these movies not only came out in the summer, not only did they have superb marketing campaigns, but they largely had ready-made audiences.
Jaws, the novel, was the best selling book of 74, while Jaws 2, Empire and Star Trek were all based on previous incarnations, be it at the cinema or on TV.
What the success of Jaws did for studios is hard to quantify. More than just showing how to make a big summer movie, Jaws made so much money Universal needn’t have released another picture that year. Thus, the phrase ‘tentpole movie’ entered the producers’ lexicon.
Studios could now plan like never before. Find a movie with a ready-made audience (say, a computer game adaptation, a book or even a cartoon) double that audience with a clever ad campaign, and release at the height of the summer.
Today this approach allows studios to hit targets, meaning more, allegedly risky, ventures can be taken by their ‘independent’ arms (Fox Searchlight with Little Miss Sunshine for example).
In today’s terms, Indiana Jones IV, Prince Caspian and, The Dark Knight are all on the trajectory that fired Jaws into the stratosphere. Should the movie in question not be a sequel or adaptation, studios will require ready-made audiences from elsewhere, hence the paycheque Angelina Jolie’s likely to receive for Wanted.
Of course, the formula suffers from the sheer volume of movies that aim to achieve summer success. So many glossy, vacuous popcorn thrillers arrive in the months of June, July and August that it’s a veritable minefield of bullshit cinema.
Today, 33 years after Jaws thrilled in a way so many movies attempt to emulate, the best way for a studio to find a moment of quiet to attract attention in, they must wait
later in the year. Which is why winter is becoming the new summer.
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