In Science Fiction Cinema Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska point out that "science fiction is located at a strategic point that fits perfectly into the New Hollywood corporate universe, and this is a major factor in the prominence of the genre" (63)
King and Krzywinska also point out that
- Studios used to depend on a steady stream of modestly-budgeted films
- Now studios depend on a small number of blockbusters, many of which are science fiction
Other important features of blockbusters include
- Foreign rights
- TV and DVD sales
- Merchandising, including collectibles, video games, and theme park rides (61-2)
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| Niche Films |
King and Krzywinska
note the importance of niche films such as Roger Corman's low budget work:
- It Conquered the World
- Attack of the Crab Monster
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| Auteur Films |
King and Krzywinska
also note the "effects-plus-philosophy" recipe of auteurs
- Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986)
- David Lynch's Dune (1984)
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| Spectacles and Blockbusters |
Genre films are notes as big budget spectacles meant to woo audiences away from television and other leisure activities (King and Krzywinska
60)
The blockbuster is common in science fiction and now fantasy film. A blockbuster is a mainstream film expensive to make and expected to earn a large profit; such a film often also aspires to an impact beyond cinema
The ultimate blockbuster is the "event" movie--"one that imposes itself on our lives with saturation promotion and becomes for a time almost impossible to ignore" (King and Krzywinska 60).
- All the Star Wars sequels
- Matrix sequels
- Lord of the Rings
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Star Wars, though relatively unheralded when it was first released, was the first bona fide science fiction blockbuster.
Star Wars also was the first scifi film to make extensive use of merchandise tie-ins (Telotte 106).
All of its sequels have aspired to become event movies. |
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| Pre-sold Product |
Obviously filmmakers would love to have a guarantee that their productions are going to make a profit; thus if a film is successful it will often spawn sequels with the same cast. Science fiction and fantasy films often spawn a series of sequels
- Star Trek
- Stories based on proven comic book characters or material from other media
- Batman
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Spider-Man
- Superman
- X-Men
- Lord of the Rings trilogy
- Harry Potter series
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| Sources |
King, Geoff, and Tanya Krzywinska. Science Fiction Cinema: From Outerspace to Cyberspace. London: Wallflower, 2000.
Telotte, J.P. Science Fiction Film. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. |
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