![]() ![]() ![]() Īccording to Stephen Prince, Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai had a "racing, powerful narrative engine, breathtaking pacing, and sense-assaulting visual style" (what he calls a "kinesthetic cinema" approach to "action filmmaking and exciting visual design") that was "the clearest precursor" and became "the model for" the "visceral" Hollywood blockbuster "brand of moviemaking" that emerged in the 1970s. blockbuster right up there with Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind for boxoffice performance a super-spectacle in all its meaning". In December 1950 the Daily Mirror predicted that Samson and Delilah would be "a box office block buster", and in November 1951 Variety described Quo Vadis as "a b.o. By the early 1950s the term had become standardised within the film industry and the trade press to denote a film that was large in spectacle, scale and cost, that would go on to achieve a high gross. ![]() The term fell out of usage in the aftermath of World War II but was revived in 1948 by Variety in an article about big budget films. Throughout 19 the term was applied to films such as Bataan, No Time for Love and Brazil. The trade press subsequently appropriated the term as short-hand for a film's commercial potential. The term was actually first coined by publicists who drew on readers' familiarity with the blockbuster bombs, drawing an analogy with the bomb's huge impact. Another explanation is that trade publications would often advertise the popularity of a film by including illustrations showing long queues often extending around the block, but in reality the term was never used in this way. However, this practice was outlawed in 1948 before the term became common parlance while pre-1948 high-grossing big-budget spectacles may be retroactively labelled "blockbusters," this is not how they were known at the time. One explanation pertains to the practice of " block booking" whereby a studio would sell a package of films to theaters, rather than permitting them to select which films they wanted to exhibit. Several theories have been put forward for the origin of the term in a film context. Its first known use in reference to films was in May 1943, when advertisements in Variety and Motion Picture Herald described the RKO film, Bombardier, as "The block-buster of all action-thrill-service shows!" Another trade advertisement in 1944 boasted that the war documentary, With the Marines at Tarawa, "hits the heart like a two ton blockbuster." The term began to appear in the American press in the early 1940s, referring to the blockbuster bombs, aerial munitions capable of destroying a whole block of buildings. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production intended for "blockbuster" status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it. “The company is committed to bringing outstanding products to market for families and children of all ages, and MEGA is an ideal collaborator for our Despicable Me franchise.”įollow the #MinionMontage action and visit the Mega Bloks Facebook pageto see highlights of the fun.īuilders will be able to embrace their “inner Minions” with a new line of easy-to-build and fully customizable construction sets based on the super-popular Despicable Me franchise.Queue for Gone with the Wind in Pensacola, Florida (1947)Ī blockbuster is a work of entertainment-typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studio, but also other media-that is highly popular and financially successful. “We are thrilled to join MEGA Brands in this new licensing partnership,” said Cindy Chang, senior vice president, Worldwide Sales, UP&L. Each set will include build-able Minions that are unique to the set, for a wide variety of Minions to collect, build and play out fun and quirky adventures. ![]() “We are so excited to join forces with Universal and Illumination Entertainment in bringing these iconic characters and their stories to the world of building.”īuilders will embrace their “inner Minions” with the line’s easy - to - build and fully customizable construction sets that offer mix-and-match features, such as interchangeable accessories. “The Despicable Me franchise and its dynamic characters have become a global sensation,” said Bisma Ansari, vice president, Girls & Boys, MEGA Brands. In stores as of December 2014, the Mega Bloks® Despicable Me construction sets offer fully build-able iconic characters, locations and vehicles, all inspired by the blockbuster sequel, Despicable Me 2. MEGA Brands’ new partnership with UP&L will introduce builders and fans to the only toy line that brings the iconic and playful world of Minions to life through building. ![]()
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