written by: CookieHead © 2001 Quotes from CNN

There's a certain magic in the world of film that happens around the end of April till the end of August: The Summer Blockbusters appear; In all their explosive, puffed budgets, over inflated marketing campaign - glory.

It sent millions of moviegoers scrambling from the surf – and as the body count mounted, the profits rolled in. But something else happened after "Jaws" landed in movie theaters on June 20, 1975. The summer blockbuster was born.

"It demonstrated, among other things, that a single film could earn enough money, could produce a revenue stream substantial enough to carry an entire studio not just through a season, but through years and years of losses on other films," said David Cook, a professor of film studies at Emory University in Atlanta.

And as time rolled on, it just wouldn't be summer without a host of noisy, high-tech, big-budget movies, stacked weekend upon weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Christmas in July
Summer is upon us, and as such - is no exception as the studios unleash another slew of blockbusters, including "Pearl Harbor," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," a "Planet of the Apes" remake and a third installment of "Jurassic Park".

"They really make all their money in the summer. It's like what Christmas is to the retail industry," said Heidi Parker, executive editor of Movieline magazine.

The reason for all this summer excess is pretty clear: Nine of the United States' 10 highest-grossing films were released in the summer.

"There are absolutely more people ready to see movies," she said. "It's hot, people want to go to a cool movie theater. It's cheap entertainment and kids aren't in school, and those are major moviegoers."

Summer's just not the same
But the summer landscape wasn't always like this. When you look back at the lineups of the early 1970s, there's a remarkable dearth of films even remotely resembling what we've come to expect when May rolls around.

The summer of 1971, for example, brought "Shaft" and "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." In 1972, the summer highlights included Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex," and "Superfly."

In the summer of "Jaws" -- which in two months surpassed "The Godfather" as the highest-grossing film to that point -- the lineup featured the likes of "White Line Fever" and "The Apple Dumpling Gang." "Terminator 2" they weren't.

There were plenty of modern-era blockbusters before "Jaws," of course, including "The Exorcist," "The Godfather," "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Love Story." But they weren't summer films.

Next came 'Star Wars'
While "Jaws" cleared the path to summer as we know it by surrounding a conventional monster tale with unprecedented promotion and a widespread release, "Star Wars" paved it over in 1977 -- generating still more money, more quickly, at the box office.

"'Star Wars' was an exponential step up," Cook said, thanks in part to marketing tie-ins of toys and other products that created a whole new revenue stream.

Then came "Jaws 2" and "Animal House" in 1978, "Alien" in 1979, "The Empire Strikes Back" in 1980 and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981.

By 1982, the summer film phenomenon was in full force, with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Poltergeist," "Blade Runner," "Rocky III," "Star Trek: Wrath of Khan" and, for a little romantic counter-scheduling, "An Officer and a Gentleman."

And summer kept on growing.

Summertime has been such a cash cow for the studios that the blockbusters have been spilling into the rest of the year. For example, “U-571” launched April 17th, 2000, with “Hollowman” wrapping this up August 5th, 2000.

Common denominator
Since at least 1990, most of the summer blockbusters have been sci-fi or special-effects-laden, action-adventure flicks, notes Cook, author of "Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-79."

Think "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "Jurassic Park," "Twister," "Men in Black," "Independence Day" and "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace."
"I think you would find that most of those films were in a spectacular kind of genre," he said. "They're thrilling. They want to give the audience a roller-coaster ride."

What viewers usually don't see in July are the more subdued, lower-budget dramas likely to please critics and rack up award nominations. Those usually come later in the year.

"I think studios are heckled for making big dumb summer films so they compensate for that by getting awards and making important films," Parker said.

Arguable exceptions include "Forrest Gump" and "Gladiator," summer releases that went on to win best picture Oscars. But while each featured more conventional narratives, "Gladiator" was essentially a glossy action adventure, and both relied heavily on special effects.

Risk factor
Success doesn’t’ always come with the bill -- summer blockbusters can bolster the studios' bottom line, and they're also fraught with a certain peril:

On the heels of "Terminator 2," Arnold Schwarzenegger bombed two years later with "Last Action Hero." The same went for Bruce Willis in 1991's "Hudson Hawk." Even Will Smith, whose "Independence Day" and "Men in Black" rank among the top-grossing summer films, couldn't save "Wild Wild West" in 1999.

"That's where the gambling comes in," Cook said. "You can never know what the public at any given moment is going to find exciting or sensationally appealing."

Wrapping up 2001 will wrap another year of blockbusters further lining the studios pockets, and further paving way for bigger, louder and more – Hollywood.

Like the article? feel someone else can benefit from it?