You are given ONE chapter to read. From the chapter you need to answer the questions written down below., based on your readings. The questions are written below and the chapter is attached. The answers must come from the readings, not google.

IN DEPTH: FILM SUCCESS: FINDING THE BALANCE BETWEEN FAMILIARITY AND NOVELTY

1a. Pre-Exercise Question: Why do some films become enormous hits while others become enormous failures? This Critical Process discussion/exercise investigates the factors that determine a movie’s success with audiences. To begin, select two recent big-budget films (one success and one box-office flop) and two small independent films (one that became commercially successful and one that never made a huge impact). (To find listings and reviews of smaller films, check big-city alternative publications like the Village Voice, Chicago Reader, or LA Weekly. These magazines also have World Wide Web listings; see Web sites later in this chapter of the manual.) Proceed with a critical inquiry:

1. Description. Isolate the major elements of the four films: What genre (or combination of genres) does each film belong to?

What are the major attractions of each film: popular actors, renowned directors, intriguing “unknown” actors, expensive special effects, a familiar story, an unfamiliar story? Check newspaper ads: How were the movies marketed? Were the movies critically acclaimed?

2. Analysis. Compare the movies’ elements. Do any patterns emerge among the successes and the flops?

3. Interpretation. What seems to bring success? What seems to cause failure? What role does genre play in success? How important is it to balance familiarity and novelty? (You may wish to again consider the “culture as a hierarchy” vs. “culture as a map” models from Chapter 1 of the text.) Why do movies succeed or fail? How do we measure that? © 2016 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved. 230

4. Evaluation. What do you think of these films? Is box-office success a reliable indicator of how good a movie really is? Do we as a culture fixate excessively on box-office winners and losers?

5. Engagement. Write a movie review of a film that you think was fabulous but that did not do well at the box office. Publish it online (you can offer your critiques on various movie databases, such as the Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com), in your college newspaper, or in another venue.