er Bros. This led to hugely successful projects like Raid- ers of the Lost Ark, E.T., Indi- ana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Color Purple etc. We nonetheless have to turn back to the ‘70s to mention a second important figure in the birth of the blockbuster: George Lucas. Two years after Jaws, Lucas’s Star Wars set a new record that dethroned Spielberg's hit by earning in excess of 500 million dollars. The early ‘80s was marked by a ratings war between these
Možda nije pobedio na blagajnama, ali teško da je bilo voljenijeg serijala od Lukasovih „Ratova zvezda“ It may not have won the box office, but there was hardly a more beloved film series than Lucas’s Star Wars
mas holiday periods, became the norm, with all studios competing to produce the biggest hit. The turn of the millen- nium was marked by the birth of serial adaptations of novels: Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, while Lucas re- turned to the fray with a new/old Star Wars trilogy. The film series format be- came the new big thing in Hollywood, marked by the likes of Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean and Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Cameron, like Spielberg, would go on to break his own record, with his first fea- ture film 12 years after Titanic, Avatar, grossing $2.7 billion to become the first film in history to break the $2 billion barrier. No film has to date managed to surpass the three-billion-dollar mark, but Avengers: Endgame came very close during the era of the incredible pop- ularity of the Marvel Cinematic Uni- verse (36 projects so far). Over the past 16 years, only six films have grossed over two billion dollars: Titanic follow- ing its 3D re-release; both Avatar mov- ies, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and
two Avengers sequels - Infinity War and Endgame. It is all but certain that this exclusive group will soon be joined by the third Avatar instalment, which will be released in December. So, in a way, Spielberg can be considered the father of the blockbuster, with Lu- cas and Cameron his followers, but al- so his competitors. Until around a dec- ade ago, blockbusters had managed to coexist with low-budget and mid- budget films, with all three finding their own audiences. However, today’s Hol- lywood focuses on a seemingly inex- haustible supply of sequels, using nos- talgia to attract audiences. Independent films have almost no adequate market- ing campaigns, while budgets for mid- range projects have increased to the det- riment of studios, because they suffer the highest losses. This situation has led to a reduction in the number of projects being offered to the public through the- atrical release. It can be concluded that the only type of film that will survive all the changes in Hollywood will be block- busters.
two creators and a massive battle for box office supremacy. While Spielberg focused on the Indiana Jones franchise, Lucas shot his Star Wars sequels. The Empire Strikes Back became the high- est grossing film of all time in 1980, on- ly for that record to be broken two years later by Spielberg’s E.T., which earned over 600 million dollars. Lucas’s sequels proved popular, but they weren’t able to compete with Spielberg, who outdid his own record-breaking E.T. 11 years later, with Jurassic Park. That blockbuster re- mained the highest-grossing film of all time until 1997, grossing over $900 mil- lion at box offices worldwide. The third biggest player in the fierce competition to capture the blockbuster throne is James Cameron, whose spec- tacular movie Titanic grossed 1.8 billion dollars, thus becoming the first film to exceed the billion-dollar mark, almost doubling the takings of previous cham- pion Jurassic Park. Entering the 2000s, blockbusters, par- ticularly during the summer and Christ-
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