In the cineplex, summer's where the action is

By Thurston Hatcher
CNN

(CNN) -- At first bite, it sent millions of moviegoers scrambling from the surf. But something else happened after "Jaws" landed in movie theaters on June 20, 1975. As the body count mounted, the profits rolled in. And the summer blockbuster was born.

"It demonstrated, among other things, that a single film could earn enough money, could produce a revenue stream substantial enough to carry an entire studio not just through a season, but through years and years of losses on other films," said David Cook, a professor of film studies at Emory University in Atlanta.

A quarter-century later, it just wouldn't be summer without a crop of noisy, high-tech, big-budget movies, stacked weekend upon weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Christmas in July

This season is no exception, as the studios unleash another slew of would-be blockbusters, including "Pearl Harbor," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," a "Planet of the Apes" remake and a third "Jurassic Park" installment.

"They really make all their money in the summer. It's like what Christmas is to the retail industry," said Heidi Parker, executive editor of Movieline magazine.

The reason for all this summer excess is pretty clear: Nine of the United States' 10 highest-grossing films were released in the summer.

"There are absolutely more people ready to see movies," she said. "It's hot, people want to go to a cool movie theater. It's cheap entertainment and kids aren't in school, and those are major moviegoers."

Summer's just not the same

But the summer landscape wasn't always like this. When you look back at the lineups of the early 1970s, there's a remarkable dearth of films even remotely resembling what we've come to expect when May rolls around.

The summer of 1971, for example, brought "Shaft" and "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." In 1972, the summer highlights included Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex," and "Superfly."

In the summer of "Jaws" -- which in two months surpassed "The Godfather" as the highest-grossing film to that point -- the lineup featured the likes of "White Line Fever" and "The Apple Dumpling Gang." "Terminator 2" they weren't.

There were plenty of modern-era blockbusters before "Jaws," of course, including "The Exorcist," "The Godfather," "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Love Story." But they weren't summer films.

Next came 'Star Wars'

While "Jaws" cleared the path to summer as we know it by surrounding a conventional monster tale with unprecedented promotion and a widespread release, "Star Wars" paved it over in 1977 -- generating still more money, more quickly, at the box office.

"'Star Wars' was an exponential step up," Cook said, thanks in part to marketing tie-ins of toys and other products that created a whole new revenue stream.

Then came "Jaws 2" and "Animal House" in 1978, "Alien" in 1979, "The Empire Strikes Back" in 1980 and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981.

By 1982, the summer film phenomenon was in full force, with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Poltergeist," "Blade Runner," "Rocky III," "Star Trek: Wrath of Khan" and, for a little romantic counter-scheduling, "An Officer and a Gentleman."

And the season kept expanding.

"The summer market has become so lucrative that it's actually spilling out into the rest of the year, and the summer season starts earlier and earlier every year," Parker said.

Common denominator

Since 1990, at least, most of the big summer blockbusters have been science-fiction or otherwise special-effects-laden, action-adventure flicks, notes Cook, author of "Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-79."

Think "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "Jurassic Park," "Twister," "Men in Black," "Independence Day" and "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace."

"I think you would find that most of those films were in a spectacular kind of genre," he said. "They're thrilling. They want to give the audience a roller-coaster ride."

What viewers usually don't see in July are the more subdued, lower-budget dramas likely to please critics and rack up award nominations. Those usually come later in the year.

"I think studios are heckled for making big dumb summer films so they compensate for that by getting awards and making important films," Parker said.

Arguable exceptions include "Forrest Gump" and "Gladiator," summer releases that went on to win best picture Oscars. But while each featured more conventional narratives, "Gladiator" was essentially a glossy action adventure, and both relied heavily on special effects.

Risk factor

While summer blockbusters can bolster the studios' bottom line, they're also fraught with peril.

On the heels of "Terminator 2," Arnold Schwarzenegger bombed two years later with "Last Action Hero." The same went for Bruce Willis in 1991's "Hudson Hawk." Even Will Smith, whose "Independence Day" and "Men in Black" rank among the top-grossing summer films, couldn't save "Wild Wild West" in 1999.

"That's where the gambling comes in," Cook said. "You can never know what the public at any given moment is going to find exciting or sensationally appealing."

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