All About BLOCKBUSTERS!! big budget = big movie??? All About BLOCKBUSTERS!!

What defines a blockbuster?? The term blockbuster was originally defined by a large audience response.  After a while the term came to mean a high-budget production aimed at mass markets, with associated merchandising, on which the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor depended. It was defined by its production budget and marketing effort rather than its success and popularity, and was essentially a tag which a film's marketing gave itself.

Biggest films ever!!!!!!! By the numbers....

The numbers!!!  While many would argue the popularity of some of these films today GONE WITH THE WIND FAR & AWAY WINS OUT WITH OVER 3 BILLION DOLLARS IN GROSS SALES WORLD-WIDE!!! What can't be disputed is the impact these cinematic classics had on the world of film, and pop culture as a whole!!!

Sleepers aka low budget hit films When a film made on a low budget is particularly successful or exceeds the expectations of the films in its genre, then that film is a blockbuster as well, in the original meaning of the word. Such films may not receive the title "blockbuster" in the current meaning of the word but are labeled "hits" or "sleepers"!! The independent film Halloween, which played over the course of fall 1978 through fall 1979 and relied almost completely on word-of-mouth as marketing, was also a sleeper hit, having a box-office take of over $55 million on a budget of only $325,000. Its success caused other slasher films to try the same approach, although few fared as well since horror films heavily rely on opening weekend box- office and quickly fall from theaters. Other notable examples of horror sleeper-hits to follow in Halloween's wake include A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, Scream in 1996, The Blair Witch Project in 1999, Saw in 2004, and Paranormal Activity in 2007.