The symbiosis with which the blockbuster and the independent film have coexisted for the past fifty years is the result of taking advantage of each other’s success to survive.
Hollywood’s blockbuster era is traditionally held to have begun with Stephan Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws however without the George Lucas helmed success that was Star Wars two years later, it is unclear how long it would have taken studio execs to figure out the formula for blockbuster success. The formula thus devised continues to be used every summer since with success to this day.
Although these two trend setters were relatively low budget for their time, the traditional definition of a blockbuster movie is of a high-budget production, mass marketed with associated merchandising and tie-ins.
It is interesting to note that with summer becoming the de facto rule for these type of release, recent mega-blockbusters, such as this year’s Last Jedi have been released out of season to both thin out the competition created by summer blockbuster season, as well as giving that competition, in the form of competing …show more content…
This gave the independents the freedom to explore content that was outside the tastes of the mainstream studios and the recently independent distribution chains provided the indies with a commercial outlet for their product. An independent business model evolved using inexpensive, B-movie model, rip-offs with similar sounding titles closely followed or even released at the same time to make use of the blockbusters own marketing efforts. The introduction of commercial video players in the late seventies enhanced independent commercial viability even further by providing particularly odious movies that would be a fiscal disaster in the theaters found an enormous audience at