Download or read book Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters written by Sheldon Hall and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pantheon of big-budget, commercially successful films encompasses a range of genres, including biblical films, war films, romances, comic-book adaptations, animated features, and historical epics. It discuss the characteristics, history, and modes of distribution and exhibition that unite big-budget pictures, from their beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the present. Moving chronologically, it examines the roots of today's blockbuster in the "feature," "special," "superspecial," "roadshow," "epic," and "spectacle" of earlier eras, with special attention to the characteristics of each type of picture. (Editor).