Edward Jay Epstein has written a wonderfully interesting and informative book about the history and development of the business of Hollywood.
“The Big Picture – The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood” tells not only ‘what,’ but also ‘why’ and ‘how.’
ISBN 1-4000-6353-1
Chapter 5 details in easily understood terms “The Clearinghouse Concept” of revenue inflows and outflows and exactly why “…except for a few exceptional starts and producers, breakeven is more a dream than reality.”
Chapter 21 reveals “The Midas Formula” that every billion dollar revenue movie (ten of them) between 1999 and 2004 follows. “All of them:
- are based on children’s stories, comic books, serials, cartoons, orthe case of Pirates of the Caribbean, a theme-park ride.
- feature a child or adolescent protagonist
- have a fairy-tale-like plot in which a weak or ineffectual youth is transformed into a powerful and purposeful hero.
- contains only chaste, if not strictly platonic, relationships between the sexes, with no suggestive nudity, sexual foreplay, provacative language, or even hints of consummated passion.
- feature bizarre-looking and eccentic supporting characters that are appropriate for toy and game licensing.
- depict conflict – though it may be dazzling, large-scale, and noisy – in ways that are sufficiently nonrealistic, and bloodless, for a rating no more realistic than PG-13.
- end happily, with the hero prevailing over powerful villains and supernatural forces (most of which remain available for potential sequels).
- use conventional or digital animation to artificially create action sequences, supernatural forces, and elaborate settings.
- cast actors who are not ranking stars – at least in the sense that they do not command gross revenue shares…”
The author’s website http://edwardjayepstein.com/ is worth visiting, especially the “Hollywood Economist’ pages.
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