In this scholarly paper, Arthur De Vany and W. David Walls discuss, among many other things, how the studios used the “blockbuster” strategy in which advertising, box office ranking, and movie stars play integral roles in a film’s success. They acknowledge Jaws as the first movie to employ this technique on a national level, using television advertising in addition to a nationwide release.

According to this theory, the opening of the movie is the most important event in a film’s life. Producer Robert Evans compared it to a parachute jump, “If it doesn’t open, you are dead.” De Vany and Walls believe that if the theory were true, the choices of early movie-goers directly affect the decisions of people who see the movie later. Furthermore, a strong opening weekend or week can lead to a “dominant position in the film market.”

Jaws is indeed a strong example of the “blockbuster” strategy of marketing because it was the highest grossing film at the time (dominating the box office), and created a national buzz about the film, which included television advertising. However, Jaws was somewhat different in that it did not have any big stars, but rather quality actors on the rise in the industry.

There are people who refute the “blockbuster” strategy and argue that the success of a film depends almost entirely on the early audience of the film and how those moviegoers express their opinions to friends, family and acquaintances. In closing, De Vany and Walls agree that the aspects of a successful film depend both on a strong opening as well as positive feedback from the early viewers.

In this article, James Surowiecki analyzes the marketing scheme of big Hollywood films like Jaws. In doing so, he looks at how blockbusters have been marketed since Jaws first opened in 1975. Among the factors discussed, the opening weekend and the behavior of the moviegoers are the most important.

In 1975, Stephen Farber, a movie critic, wrote that the success of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was due to an “aggressive media blitz” that utilized prime-time television advertising along with an unusual national opening weekend at over 400 theaters across the country. Farber believed that audience members were manipulated into seeing the film and that the studio executives controlled what they wanted people to see.

As Surowiecki writes, Hollywood wanted to believe that the success of Jaws could be imitated by employing the same marketing strategies because there were huge profit opportunities. The studios believed that by giving certain films “a big enough push out of the gate” that enough people would go see it without regard for the actual quality of the movie’s content. This is called a “non-informative information cascade” in which the actions of the later moviegoers are based on the early moviegoers, who were persuaded to see the film due to the massive advertising campaign. Unfortunately, there have been many blockbusters that bring in large profits early on, followed by mediocre numbers in the following weeks (i.e. The Matrix: Reloaded).

However, as De Vany and Walls state in their in-depth study of what makes a blockbuster, they find that a big budget and expensive advertising campaign may make it possible for a big opening; its success truly depends on how the audience rates the film. This strategy has garnered some media criticism, but Surowicki argues Hollywood is sensible because this method increases revenues in a shorter time so that they can remove the film from theaters in order to keep a larger percentage of the profits.

This article has to do with video games that are based on movies and the profitability of these games. In particular, many video game companies are looking to acquire licenses for older, successful movies. The reason behind this is that the companies, like Electronic Arts and Buena Vista Games, see a huge potential market in selling video games based on popular films because they can market the games to the people who loved the movie.

However, as P.J. McNealy, video game analyst at American Technology Research, states, it is sometimes a difficult decision whether or not to make a game based on a new Hollywood movie or an established “Hollywood intellectual property” with a built-in audience. Games such as “Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon” had minimal success because the audience that appreciated the movie did not necessarily want to play the game.

The movie Jaws is a good example of an older movie that had huge success, thus Majesco decided to produce a game based on the film. Additionally, the release date was timed with the release of the 30^th anniversary edition of Jaws. By combining these two products, the company hoped to see interest in one market lead to interest in the other (i.e. video games and DVD).

The Vice President of Majesco stated in the article that “By adding the Jaws license, one of the best-known movies of all time, we instantly gave our game a better chance to reach the mass-market gamer, while allowing us to delve more into character and story.” Players will be able to control the man-eating shark as well as experience a different story line based on the blockbuster hit. The video game market adds another reason to the lengthy list of why Jaws and other popular action movies are able to have such lasting impacts on audiences because the games offer more action and information to the fans of the original films.