Sunday, November 1, 2009

What Are The Precise Components Of A Film Blockbuster?

By Joan K Cooper

Every Hollywood producer has one aim in mind when they make a motion picture. They want to put out a film that is a giant hit that the public loves. A good story, some excellent stars along with a few special effects and there you have the formula for a enormous box-office success. Or do you? Sometimes a movie will have all of the alleged compulsory aspects and it will still fail at the box office. There are no guaranteed recipes to make a Hollywood blockbuster.

The quantity of money that can be used up on a movie in order to make a blockbuster success seems to be limitless. But the fact of the matter is that until the motion picture hits the box office and in fact brings in huge receipts in ticket sales it is a risk. Of course, there are always those directors who seem to have the magical touch and there are stars who have the magic to be able to guarantee a blockbuster for awhile, if you look at past history even the most well-liked actors have starred in box-office flops.

Hollywood has been making films for a long time and it seems that they have an indication of just what the public is looking for. Even so, every once in a while a high-priced movie comes along that seems to have all of the aspects for victory yet it fails miserably at the box office.

A somewhat recent and excellent case in point of this incident is the 2005 film "Sahara". What is ironic is that this motion picture in fact did reasonably well at the box office, opening with $18 million in the first weekend and generating $122 million in gross-box office sales. However the film was exceedingly expensive to produce and it ended up actually losing money. The movie had expenses of $281.2 million during production but only brought in receipts of $202.9 million for one of the maximum monetary losses in Hollywood history.

In contrast to that you may recall another well-known motion picture, from 1999, "The Blair Witch Project". There are varying reports of how much it cost to produce this film but the maximum estimate was at $100,000. The movie ended up grossing over $248 million globally. This movie had the maximum ratio of box office sales to production cost in American filmmaking history until 2009 with the release of "Paranormal Activity".

One of the main keys to producing a best-seller is to produce a buzz around the film due to media exposure and frenzy. This helps generate expectancy and contributes critically to a ticket sellout on the opening weekend. However, opening day revenue will never tell the whole story and a movie must go on to make box-office sales in order to be thought to be a triumph.

With as many films as there are, you may think that Hollywood would have it down and know precisely how to cater to the public and bring them the motion pictures that they love. However, part of the thrill for both movie attendees and producers is the fact that there are no guarantees. Even the most popular actor occasionally has a box office letdown and even the most sure of movie storylines can stop working.

There will always be those shocking box office surprises, either the unforeseen blockbuster hit or the disappointment that no one could foretell. And that is part of the magic and appeal of movies and Hollywood; you never know just what might be the giant box-office hit.

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