Blockbuster Cinema: Hollywood’s Obsession with Low Risk -- James McMahon (York University, 2015)

ABSTRACT: Hollywood is obsessed with blockbusters – for 20 years the major studios have been making them, and it appears that blockbuster cinema will be with us for many years to come. This presentation will theoretically and empirically explain how blockbusters, and the associated business strategies that surround them, serve Hollywood’s financial goals. The key to blockbusters is that they allow major studios to reduce their risk. The revenues of designed-to-be blockbusters rarely fall below expectations, making the world of cinema increasingly predictable. Moreover, this predictability affects how the film business controls the social creativity of filmmakers and, indirectly, the behaviour of consumers. *** James McMahon. PhD student at the Program in Social and Political Thought, York University ([email protected]) This presentation is the third in the Second Speaker Series on the Capitalist Mode of Power, organized by capitalaspower.com and sponsored by the York Department of Political Science and the Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought. WHEN: Tuesday, November 3, 2015, 3:00-5:00 pm WHERE: Verney Room, 674 South Ross, Keele Campus of York University Event page: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/461/