BLOCKBUSTERS By Anita Elberse

Blockbusters-by-Anita-Elberse-Book
anita elberse
Harvard professor Anita Elbere provides an informative and surprising analysis of blockbusters. Blockbusters: Hit-Making, Risk-Taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment shows how blockbusters are made. For example, major Hollywood studios who used to produce many more movies than they do today have adopted the “home-run” strategy to making movies. That’s great when a movie like The Avengers makes over a billion dollars. That approach doesn’t work so well as Disney found out when John Carter flopped. I learned a lot blockbusters from Elberse’s book. For example, Disney paid Robert Downey, Jr. $50 million to play Tony Stark in The Avengers. Was the money worth it or not? Elberse has her own ideas about investing in Superstars. We’re stuck with this Blockbuster mentality In entertainment it seems. Now, I have a better understanding of how it works. GRADE: A
Table of Contents

Prologue: Show Business—a Business of Blockbusters 1

One: Betting on Blockbusters 15
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Grand Central Publishing, Marvel Entertainment

Two: Launching and Managing Blockbusters 56
Lady Gaga, Octone Records

Three: Investing in Superstars 83
Real Madrid, Boca Juniors

Four: How Superstars Use Their Powers 118
MGM and Tom Cruise, Maria Sharapova, LeBron James

Five: Will Digital Technology End the Dominance of Blockbusters? 150
YouTube, Hulu, the Metropolitan Opera

Six: Will Digital Technology Threaten Powerful Producers? 187
Radiohead, Major League Baseball, the National Football League

Seven: The Future of Blockbuster Strategies 220
Jay-Z, Lady Gaga

Epilogue: No Business Like Show Business? 251
Marquee New York City

Notes 267
Acknowledgments 289
Index 295

8 thoughts on “BLOCKBUSTERS By Anita Elberse

  1. Cap'n Bob

    The sad story behind JOHN CARTER is that the suits at Disney wanted it to fail and worked hard to see that it did. Apparently they had another franchise they wanted to concentrate on and needed JC out of the way. It wasn’t a bad movie.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, for Edgar Rice Burroughs fans JOHN CARTER was a dream come true. Rumors of a ERB Mars movie made the rounds in Hollywood for decades.

      Reply
  2. Richard

    I liked John Carter of Mars well enough, though the books are superior. It wasn’t given much of a push by Disney and the subject of swords-and-planets is niche so it didn’t have much of a chance. As for blockbuster mentality, I see so few movies I hardly know.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, trust Anita Elberse’s analysis of the blockbuster mentality. Sadly, it’s the prevailing strategy in Hollywood and in the major publishing houses.

      Reply
  3. Patti Abbott

    I used to love Robert Downey, Jr. but clearly any interest in his craft has given way to starring in films like this and the IRON MAN series and the SHERLOCK series. How much money do you need? At one point, he was considered more than just the man under a uniform. There are almost no blockbusters I have any interest in.

    Reply

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