Deck 15: Cinema As Industry: Economics and Technology

Question 1

When a company makes,distributes and exhibits its own films in its own theaters,it is said to be practicing ________.

A) vertical integration
B) block booking
C) horizontal integration
D) consolidation

Answer 1

A

Question 2

A film that swamps all competition,in part by the sheer number of prints all in circulation at once is known as a ________.

A) blockbuster
B) sleeper hit
C) bomb
D) vanity project

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The term "mumblecore" is used to describe _______________________.

A) the canon of films before the rise of digital sound
B) the first wave of blockbuster films in the 1970s
C) a collection of low-budget independent films
D) the last remnants of the French New Wave

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The practice of forcing exhibitors (theater owners)to rent a studio's less lucrative films in order to get its sure-fire box office successes is called ________.

A) block busting
B) vertical integration
C) block booking
D) bully booking

Question 5

Which of the following was NOT an effect of the studios' decline in the 1960s?

A) Studios began investing in smaller, independently produced films.
B) Studios limited their investments to a handful of big-budget releases.
C) American filmmaking began to address challenging social and political issues.
D) American filmmaking began to experiment with style.

Question 6

Time-Warner earned massive amounts of money from the release of Batman in 1989,not just from box-office revenue,but also from merchandise sold at Time-Warner outlet stores,from the soundtrack album distributed by Time-Warner music,and by selling TV exhibition rights to Time-Warner cable. This demonstrates the advantages of ________.

A) horizontal integration
B) vertical integration
C) outsourcing
D) runaway productions

Question 7

The "Hollywood Renaissance" refers to ________.

A) a period during which major Hollywood studios began investing in and distributing small, independent pictures
B) a period during the late 1960s and 1970s when American films became more adventurous
C) a period when American filmmakers began to reject classical style in favor of techniques borrowed from international art cinema
D) all of these

Question 8

According to James Morrison,the proliferation of ________ ultimately compromises a director's vision.

A) "director's cut" DVDs
B) illegal DVD copies from Asia
C) unauthorized "studio cut" DVDs
D) DVDs featuring poorly transferred images

Question 9

The practice of bombarding the public with ads in newspapers,magazines,television,radio,and fast food restaurants is called ________.

A) overflow marketing
B) saturation marketing
C) blitzkrieg marketing
D) overkill marketing

Question 10

By the late-1920s,the peak season for film attendance was summer because _____________.

A) kids were out of school
B) the advent of daylight savings time
C) theaters were air-conditioned
D) that's when studios released their best work

Question 11

Historically,the highest proportion of labor costs is paid to movie stars in the form of huge fees and _________.

A) marketing kickbacks
B) free trips and meals
C) percentages of upfront costs
D) percentages of profits

Question 12

A runaway production is ________.

A) a film that has gone wildly over its budget
B) a Hollywood film shot outside of the United States
C) a film production that has jumped from one major studio to another
D) a film that has lost its financing

Question 13

________ was the studio-era practice of generating word-of-mouth publicity by opening films in a few premiere theaters before distributing them more broadly.

A) Blockbustering
B) Audience shopping
C) Roadshowing
D) In-house marketing

Question 14

When a studio hires an independent firm to handle a portion of production (such as lighting or set construction)rather than using their own employees,this is called ________.

A) outsourcing
B) contracting
C) expansion
D) conglomeration

Question 15

The term "bubble" refers to ___________________________________.

A) inflated value of DVDs in the 1990s
B) the inflated budget for the average summer blockbuster
C) the amount of time between a film's theatrical release and the time when it's available for home viewing
D) the marketing strategy of using websites and viral marketing to advertise a film

Question 16

Aligning complementary businesses and allowing companies to expand across the entertainment industry is known as ________.

A) expansion integration
B) negative integration
C) horizontal integration
D) diagonal integration

Question 17

Which of the following films is widely credited with helping to convince Hollywood to open a film in theaters across the country on the same day instead of unrolling films from city to city?

A) The Moon is Blue
B) The Godfather
C) E.T.
D) Raiders of the Lost Ark

Question 18

The dramatic contrast between the press coverage of the independent film Paranormal Activity and the coverage of the epic blockbuster Avatar demonstrates ________.

A) how popular writing about independent and mainstream film tends to focus on budget and profits
B) how writing about independent film avoids focusing on budget issues and focuses more on aesthetic issues
C) how writing about budgets and profits has fallen out of fashion in the film industry
D) how both films draw from conventions of the 50s science fiction films that focused on alien invasion

Question 19

In 1948,the Supreme Court's Paramount Decree ________.

A) determined that movies were constitutionally protected from censorship
B) determined that movies were not constitutionally protected from censorship
C) upheld Paramount's right to maintain a monopoly on film production and distribution
D) forced the major studios to divest themselves of their theater holdings

Question 20

From the 1920s through the 1940s Hollywood's industry was dominated by ________ major studios.

A) four
B) five
C) three
D) eight

Question 21

Identify one potential economic advantage of the film industry switching to digital cinema.

Question 22

Define "vertical integration" and "block booking." Explain their importance in the development of the Hollywood studio system.

Question 23

Some critics think that video games are partially responsible for audiences' increasing willingness to embrace the fractured narratives once almost solely associated with foreign art films.

Question 24

Due to their dependence on financing from sponsors and investors,independent productions are often less free to explore complex topics and social issues than their major studio competitors,for fear of offending their financial backers.

Question 25

Explain in a sentence one reason why some critics complained that Disney's acquisition of Miramax,a pioneer in independent film,would curtail the independent cinema movement.

Question 26

In 1946,the average American filmgoer saw twenty-nine films in the theater every year. By 2007,that number had dropped to eight.

Question 27

Hollywood studios make more money at the box office overseas than in the United States.

Question 28

Media conglomeration encourages vertical integration on a global,rather than simply national,level.

Question 29

Explain how Hollywood's production of ideas has been "creatively centralized."

Question 30

The high concept film is the epitome of the art cinema-influenced Hollywood renaissance picture: complex,challenging and ambiguous.

Question 31

When a studio hires an independent firm to handle a portion of production (such as lighting or set construction)rather than using their own employees,this is called ________.

Question 32

Identify one of the institutions that developed in the 1980s and 90s which contributed to the growing profitability of independent film,but which also threatened to water down the movement's ability to take risks.

Question 33

Describe (in 1-2 sentences)one reason why the blockbuster mentality made Hollywood movies more infantile by the 1980s.

Question 34

The Blair Witch Project is notable for the way its internet marketing campaign blurred the distinction between fact and fiction.

Question 35

Pro-business government policies of the 1980s effectively rendered the Paramount Decree irrelevant.

Question 36

The dramatic contrast between the press coverage of the independent film Paranormal Activity and the coverage of the epic blockbuster Avatar demonstrates how popular writing about mainstream film tends to focus on budget and profits,whereas writing about independent film focuses more on aesthetic issues.

Question 37

From the 1920s through the 1940s,one major studio (MGM)dominated Hollywood's industry.

Question 38

In recent years the length of time between when a film is released in theaters and when it is released on DVD has grown longer so that studios do not cut short any chance they have to make money off of a theatrical print of the film.

Question 39

In a sentence or two,explain how the rise of the multiplex contributed to the rise of the blockbuster.

Question 40

Critics have explored the similarities between the French New Wave and Mumblecore's ultra low-budget films,most of which have been shot on digital video.

Question 41

What was The Paramount Decree? What effect did it have on the film industry? Is that effect still visible today?

Question 42

Explore why some critics compare Mumblecore with the French New Wave,even though Mumblecore is closely associated with cutting edge digital technology whereas the New Wave featured filmmakers who loved celluloid.