Why Is It So Hard to Make a Good Blockbuster?

Sometimes I forget just how many classes I took on the history of cinema — or that I used to teach a class on it! — but then I have a conversation like the one you’re about to listen to and remember: oh right, I am a huge film history dork. This episode, featuring the brilliant Hannah McGregor, travels all over the past, present, and future of the blockbuster, from the theory of the “whammy,” to Hannah’s book on Jurassic Park, from Barbie to Twisters, from why we started going to the movies to why we’ve (largely) stopped. It’s a ROMP and incredibly listenable — perfect for wherever you’re driving or to have on in the background while you chop one million brussels sprouts.

Portrait of the Present Tense of the Blockbuster

Also! This podcast was recorded before the release of Wicked and Gladiator II — so we don’t talk about the performance of either. But that’s definitely something we should talk about in the comments.

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To reiterate some of what we said in the intro: we’re so grateful to everyone who’s helped this show became sustainable through your monthly and yearly subscriptions. We can make this show as weird and varied as we like, following your whims and our own, because we are fully independent and not beholden to advertisers (or parent companies).

Right now, we’ve made enough through subscriptions to pay Melody through January but without more… we can’t keep making the show. (And if you’re already a Culture Study newsletter subscriber, you get a screaming deal, but you have to click there to use it; it is *not* applied automatically).

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Show Notes:

• Read Hannah’s Jurassic Park book, Clever Girl!!!

• Follow Hannah on Instagram

• I appeared on Hannah’s podcast Material Girls to talk about ATHLEISURE, you can find it here

• Oh do you want a really nerdy book on the history of picture palaces? Here we go! And here’s another! Even more nerdy!!!

• We didn’t talk about this in the ep but here’s a great way to look up and see if there was a picture palace in your hometown

• An explanation on why these kinds of movies are called blockbusters

• A graph on the number of movie tickets sold over time:

  

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We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• KIDS TOYS! This is an expansive one with a kids toy expert, so you can really take it wherever you want

• The rise of therapy speak

• The future of (downhill) skiing and livability of ski towns just generally

• Why does it feel like thrifting sucks now

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (this is the subscriber-only form!)

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For today’s discussion: What makes Wicked work as a blockbuster? What makes Gladiator II fail? Or: Is it even possible to make a blockbuster anymore without existing IP?