Class 10 - 20241102 - Hollywood in the 1970s
In the late 60s and early 70s, the studios, who had fallen on hard times, became small pieces of multi-national corporations with headquarters outside California, and which made their real profits from non-entertainment businesses.
These corporations, along with the banks who loaned them money, forced the majors to bring in new executives, carry fewer people on staff, make fewer films, avoid big budget epics, and partner with other studios in co-productions.
Between 1969-1972 the majors lost $500 million (almost $4 billion today), and unemployment in Hollywood rose to over 40%.
The studios dealt with the Hollywood recession by turning to a new generation of director to lead the way to profitability.
These directors from stage, TV and film schools, and influenced by the European cinema more than the American, found themselves in the unique position of being able to dictate what they wanted to make.
This director driven cinema has become known as The New Hollywood.
In the decades leading up to this period, Hollywood’s appeal was how far removed from everyday life it could take an audience, but the new generation of directors brought a realism to American cinema in an effort to show life as it truly is.
The Godfather ushered in an era of box-office income on a scale no one had ever imagined. The film earned $134 million.
The Exorcist out-performs The Godfather. The Exorcist was the highest-grossing film Warner Bros had ever made to that point earning $329 million worldwide.
The Towering Inferno ushered in a cycle of disaster films that have filled movies screens for decades. The film earns $140 million worldwide.
Jaws turns the formerly low monster movie into the big budget summer blockbuster that have filled theater screens ever since. Jaws earns $470 million worldwide.
6 Oscar Nominations
1 Oscar Win
9 Oscar nominations
5 Oscar wins
Rocky punches its way into movie theaters without a major star or director and sets off a franchise that is still running to this day. Rocky earns $225 million worldwide.
Winner Palme d’Or
Saturday Night Fever dances into theaters and spawns a number one selling soundtrack in the process. It earns $282 million worldwide. Despite its success, musicals were not successfully revived in the 1970s.
Close Encounters turns the 1950s invasion film into a communication with extra-terrestrial wisdom. The film earns $340 million worldwide.
1977 belonged to one movie, and one movie only. Star Wars earned $775 million worldwide.
The results were undeniable. No cluster of films had ever made so much money on initial release.
Studios, near bankruptcy in the late 60s and early 70s, suddenly had profits in unprecedented levels.
But the cost of making films increased dramatically. Between 1972 and 1977 the cost of production rose 178%.
So yes, profits were rising, but only if the film was a huge success, the financial risks of production were also substantially multiplied.
Cimino wins Oscar for Best Director
Heaven’s Gate, cost $40 million to make and earned less than $2 million.
It caused the collapse of United Artists and Cimino would not direct a film for another 5 years
and only 4 more in total.
The New Hollywood, director driven cinema, was officially over.
In the recession of the late 60s and early 70s, studios welcomed a small hit, directors were not expected to create big pictures, but by the mid 1970s the studios, with nearly all their production capital now invested in five or six films annually, demanded hits.
Aware that a single flop could threaten the studio’s solvency, film executives became unwilling to let filmmakers experiment with plot, tone, and style as the industry as a whole produced fewer and fewer films, deliberately limiting supply and casting their fates with a handful of calculated blockbusters.
With nearly all films now targeting the youth market, studios began releasing their biggest pictures in the peak leisure periods for youngsters.
And beginning with Jaws the majors started promoting their films by saturating TV with previews in advance of the film’s opening weekend. Especially TV shows with a young audience.
Studios began releasing films on thousands of screens at the same time with the goal of winning the all-important opening weekend.
And after Star Wars, a film in which George Lucas retained merchandising rights, studios learned that merchandising could exceed box-office profits so giving those away was no longer an option...studios created their own merchandising divisions, and the merchandise revenue became a part of a film’s profit formula.
And while planning their production slate, studios opted for known entities: sequels and the franchising of films became part of the Hollywood business model.
Studio executives would look at a potential project and ask:
That said, with the rising cost of filmmaking, studios could only make 3 or 4 of these blockbuster films a year.
The rest of their slate, necessary to serve their distribution divisions, was filled with less costly fare,
specifically revamped versions of tried-and-true genres they knew how to make, only now re-imagined for the youth audience they craved.
Horror, in the form of low budget slasher films, targeted teens with a mixture of sex and gore.
While Comedy was pushed toward gross-out humor that appealed to 12-year-olds, and the 12-year-old that lives inside all of us.
The rise of the teenage market, the relaxing of the Production Code and the popularity of the “midnight movie” phenomenon led to: The Rise of Indie Production Firms in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
However, some claim that while their technical sophistication was immense, their films were so calculated for effect that they lack spontaneity.
Some feel that while Star Wars is significant for its unprecedented use of computer technology, it was also a film intensely manipulative of its audience’s perception.
“There is no room for interpretation or speculation in Star Wars, everyone who sees it has the exact same experience.” (Cook)
The same is said of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
“both are technically polished, but so calculated in terms of effect that they have the predictability of a Big Mac hamburger.” (Cook)