Summers weren't always like this. In fact, summer releases were traditionally crap shoots for studios. It wasn't until the late 70s and early 80s that the summer season started to yield some of the biggest blockbusters of the fiscal year. Jaws beget Star Wars, which beget E.T., and so on and so forth. In order to properly understand the current Hollywood business model, one need not look any further than the summer of 1989, looked back fondly by nostalgia junkies as the first real "tentpole" summer.
Studios laid everything they had on the table. Unfortunately for most studios, what they had were a lot of sequels. More sequels were released in the summer of 1989 than any season prior. Many of them failed, and led to the deaths of five franchises in total. The first ever "summer of the sequel" was also the year that led to studios leaving numbers of the names of sequel titles out of fear and embarrassment.
In addition to the unavoidable topic of sequelization, there are many other interesting topics touched upon in the summer of 1989. There was the rise of the superhero film to previously unrealized heights. The proliferation of integrated marketing reached a fever pitch. Studios first began to see average moviegoers paying active attention to box office receipts. Towards the end of the season "counter-programming" became a buzz word on the tongues of many. The value of appealing to young children and families instead of always catering to teenagers was never more apparent. The spectre of the shady form of "Hollywood accounting" led to some of the highest grossing films of the year and the decade to post losses instead of profits. The slasher craze died in spectacular fashion. Some of the most culturally relevant films of recent memory held their own this summer against some of the biggest high profile failures in film history.
In hopes of taking a closer look at current Hollywood business practices, starting on Thursday of this week, I will begin taking a look back at the films of the summer of 1989 and slightly beyond to the end of that year. This series will combine historical research, critical analysis (including from critics of the time), and personal reflections from my colleague Matt Brown, a fellow film writer and 1989 enthusiast who lived through the year and has some pretty vivid memories of the summer that proved to young Matt that not every film was great and started him on the path to becoming a critic.
The examination of the summer will take place mostly in the chronological order in which films were released that year with two exceptions. Matt and I welcome you to follow along with us as we take a trip to the past to better add context to the present. Join the discussion and ask questions to Matt and I and we will do our best to answer them.
Class starts this Thursday. Why call it a class? Because at the end of this "unit" there will be prizes given away for those who pass the "final exam." Each week a new part of the grand prize will be revealed. So have some fun with us this summer. Here is the schedule of classes and when they will be covered.
Thursday, June 9th - The Four Day Phenomenon
Movies Covered: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Pink Cadillac
Monday, June 13th - One Pole Sinks, Another Rises
Movies Covered: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Dead Poets Society
Thurday, June 16th - The Hundred Million Dollar Disappointment
Movie Covered: Ghostbusters 2
Thursday, June 23rd - The End is the Beginning is the End
Movie Covered: Batman
Monday, June 27th - Do You Know Where Your Children Are?
Movie Covered: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Thursday, June 30th - The Case for Cultural Relevance
Movies Covered: The Karate Kid Part III, Do the Right Thing
Thursday, July 7th - Let Them Eat Cake
Films Covered: Lethal Weapon 2, Weekend at Bernie's
Thursday, July 14th - Something is Seriously Wrong Here
Film Covered: License to Kill
Thursday, July 21st - The Adult Factor
Thursday, July 28th - ALWAYS Give the Audience What They Want
Films Covered: A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Thursday, August 4th - Late Summer Legs
Films Covered: The Abyss, Uncle Buck
Thursday, August 18th - Final Lessons Learned
Films Covered (extra credit): Look Who's Talking, Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Meyers, The Little Mermaid, Back to the Future II, Born on the Fourth of July
Bring it on - sounds interesting! I was only 12 in '89 and therefore saw most of these films on video or much later on, rather than at the movies. So I didn't draw any pattern but obviously there is one....
ReplyDeleteI hope you guys show the movies as well as discuss them. I find this interesting because there's this myth that the only important year in the 80's was 1984, which is less stronger than the myth that nothing happened in the 80's at all.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my cousin was born in 1989. Yes she's a girl, yes she's legal, yes she's on my Facebook, no she's not a slut, no she has a boyfriend, no forget about it.