100 Fun Facts About Summer Blockbuster

What did the word "blockbuster" originally describe when it entered the American press in the early 1940s?

WWII aerial bombs: 'blockbuster' was the nickname for bombs big enough to wreck a whole city block, and film publicists borrowed it for pictures they hoped would hit as hard.

Why does Indiana Jones simply shoot the Cairo swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark instead of fighting him?

The star had dysentery, like much of the crew in Tunisia, so the long sword fight the stuntman had spent weeks rehearsing was cut down to a single gunshot.

Which 1973 hit, shot for well under a million dollars, was George Lucas's last film before Star Wars?

American Graffiti cost under $800,000, and a private screening of it persuaded Fox executive Alan Ladd Jr. to back Lucas's next idea, a space opera.

Jaws was adapted from a 1974 bestselling novel by which author?

Peter Benchley wrote the first drafts of the screenplay too and appears on screen as a TV reporter, though most of his script was rewritten while the cameras were rolling.

Jaws was shot mostly on location on which island, standing in for the fictional Amity?

Martha's Vineyard played Amity although the shark hunter who inspired the novel fished off Long Island; the crew arrived in May 1974 and were still there in the autumn.

The crew of Jaws nicknamed its mechanical sharks Bruce after whom?

Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer, lent his name to all three mechanical sharks, whose constant breakdowns left the director little choice but to keep the fish mostly out of sight.

Where did Steven Spielberg film most of the shark hunt in Jaws?

On the open ocean: Spielberg turned down a studio tank, and bad weather and salt-water breakdowns of the mechanical shark sent the film far over schedule and budget.

Which line did Roy Scheider improvise in Jaws on first seeing the shark up close?

'You're gonna need a bigger boat' was Scheider's own addition to a script that was still being rewritten, scene by scene, the night before each day's filming.

Universal sold Jaws in the days before its release with a then-unprecedented burst of what kind of advertising?

Television spots cost Universal $700,000, a sum no studio had spent that way before, and the film opened in more than 400 cinemas at once to make the most of them.

Which Star Wars actor, no admirer of its script, negotiated a percentage on top of his fee?

Alec Guinness dismissed the script to friends as 'fairy-tale rubbish', yet the percentage he held out for on top of his fee made him rich once the film became a worldwide hit.

Which Star Wars character did George Lucas model on Indiana, the Alaskan Malamute that rode beside him in his car?

Chewbacca began with Lucas's big dog sitting upright in the passenger seat like a co-pilot, and the dog's name was borrowed a few years later for Indiana Jones.

Which subtitle did the original Star Wars gain in 1981?

Episode IV – A New Hope appeared above the opening crawl only then; in 1977 the film had no episode number, and by 1981 its sequel had already opened as Episode V.

Which candy company refused to let its product appear in E.T. (1982)?

Mars (M&M's) turned Spielberg down, so the trail of candy became Hershey's Reese's Pieces, and their sales reportedly tripled within two weeks of the film's release.

E.T.'s screenwriter Melissa Mathison was the partner of which actor, whose scene as Elliott's school principal was cut?

Harrison Ford played the principal with his face kept out of shot, while Mathison, his girlfriend and later his wife, played the school nurse; the whole scene was dropped.

E.T. earned nine Oscar nominations but lost Best Picture to which film?

Gandhi won for its director, Richard Attenborough, whom Spielberg cast a decade later as John Hammond, the showman who builds the dinosaur park in Jurassic Park.

E.T. builds his 'phone home' communicator around which popular toy of the day?

Speak & Spell: the communicator was designed for the film by science educator Henry Feinberg, and Texas Instruments went on to sell the toy as official E.T. merchandise.

Which TV star was George Lucas's first choice for Indiana Jones but could not get free of his new detective series?

Tom Selleck had just been cast in Magnum, P.I., whose makers would not release him; he withdrew in May 1980, and the part was recast within days.

Ghostbusters opened at number one on June 8, 1984, ahead of which same-weekend horror-comedy?

Gremlins opened the same day and finished about a million dollars behind; Ghostbusters was there to beat it only because its makers had promised Columbia a finished film within about a year.

According to Dan Aykroyd, which Ghostbusters role was originally intended for Eddie Murphy?

Winston Zeddemore was written with Murphy in mind, Aykroyd has said, though director Ivan Reitman denied it; by the time Ernie Hudson played him the part had been heavily cut.

The real Ghostbusters firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8, is in which Manhattan neighborhood?

Tribeca's firehouse supplied only the outside: it was too busy answering calls to be taken over, so the interiors were filmed in a disused fire station in Los Angeles.

Whose theme song for Ghostbusters went to number one on the charts?

Ray Parker Jr. got the job after Huey Lewis turned it down, and Lewis then sued, saying the tune copied his hit 'I Want a New Drug'; the case was settled out of court.

Who was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future and fired in January 1985?

Eric Stoltz had been filming for five weeks when Robert Zemeckis decided he wasn't right for the comedy; Michael J. Fox then played Marty at night after his days on Family Ties.

Why was 88 mph chosen as the time-travel speed in Back to the Future?

It was easy to remember, and the designers thought it looked good on the DeLorean's digital speedometer; in an early draft the time machine was a refrigerator, not a car.

Which number-one hit did Huey Lewis and the News write for Back to the Future?

The Power of Love was one of two songs the band wrote for the film, and Lewis appears in it, uncredited and in disguise, to tell Marty's band, as it launches into that very song, that it is 'just too darn loud'.

Top Gun grew out of a magazine article about the Navy's elite fighter school at which air station?

Miramar, near San Diego, called itself Fightertown USA; the producers read 'Top Guns' in California magazine in 1983 and won the Navy's backing before they had a script.

In Top Gun, Maverick and Goose fly which Navy fighter?

F-14 Tomcat: the Navy gave the production its full support, and co-writer Jack Epps Jr. sat in on Top Gun classes and flew in a Tomcat's back seat before 1986's biggest US hit was shot.

Why did comic-book fans flood the studio with protest letters when Michael Keaton was cast as Batman?

He was known for comedies such as Mr. Mom, so fans feared a camp Batman in the style of the 1960s TV series and organised letter-writing campaigns against him.

What turned Jack Nicholson's $6 million Joker fee for Batman (1989) into a far bigger payday?

A cut of the takings, merchandise included, turned the guaranteed $6 million into a payday that his biographer puts at $60 million or more.

Which rock singer lost the T-1000 role in Terminator 2 after a motorcycle crash?

Billy Idol was set to play the liquid-metal killer until the crash badly injured his leg; Robert Patrick, who took over, recalls seeing Idol's face on the designs at the effects studio.

According to Carolco's Mario Kassar, what did the studio give Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of his Terminator 2 deal?

A private jet: Kassar called it a gimmick that also made sense, since a Gulfstream could be paid off over many years while a star's fee fell due week by week.

Jurassic Park (1993) was based on a 1990 novel by which writer?

Michael Crichton had told much the same story before: twenty years earlier he wrote and directed Westworld, about a theme park whose robot attractions turn on the guests.

Which storm passed directly over Kauai while Jurassic Park was filming there in September 1992?

Iniki struck on the last scheduled day of the Kauai shoot; cast and crew sheltered in their hotel, and filming picked up again on a soundstage back at Universal.

Steven Spielberg invested in which digital surround-sound company, whose format debuted with Jurassic Park?

DTS was funded by Spielberg so that audiences could, as he put it, really hear the film the way it was intended to be heard; at first it played only in selected theatres.

Why did the US military pull its support from Independence Day (1996)?

It kept its Area 51 scenes: director Roland Emmerich says the military's one demand was that the secret base be removed, and when he refused it took back its costumes and aircraft.

Which Friends star was first cast as pilot Jimmy Wilder in Independence Day before Harry Connick Jr. took over?

Matthew Perry never played him, but the family stayed in the film: his father, John Bennett Perry, appears as a Secret Service agent guarding the First Lady.

Men in Black (1997) won its only Academy Award in which category?

Best Makeup went to Rick Baker and David LeRoy Anderson, whose aliens included the giant bug that walks around disguised in a dead farmer's skin.

Which similarly themed disaster film opened weeks before Armageddon in summer 1998?

Deep Impact reached cinemas first, but the louder rival that followed out-grossed it and every other film released in 1998 worldwide.

Which May 2002 release was the first ever to gross $100 million in a single weekend?

Spider-Man passed the mark in its first three days, and it ended 2002 as the top film in North America, ahead of the Star Wars prequel that opened two weeks after it.

Johnny Depp based his performance as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) on which musician?

Keith Richards was the model because Depp decided pirates were the rock stars of their day; the guitarist later joined the series himself, as the father of Depp's character.

The Dark Knight (2008) was the first major motion picture to shoot sequences with what?

High-resolution IMAX cameras, until then used mostly for documentaries, shot four big action sequences, starting with the Joker's opening heist; Nolan said he wished he could have filmed it all that way.

Who replaced Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight?

Maggie Gyllenhaal took over after Holmes chose to make another film, and her Rachel carries the plot: it is her death that turns Harvey Dent into Two-Face.

Mark Ruffalo played Bruce Banner in The Avengers (2012) after Marvel announced it would not bring back which actor?

Edward Norton had played Banner in The Incredible Hulk, but his talks with Marvel fell through; Ruffalo, who replaced him, had been considered for that earlier film and lost out to Norton.

What is the exhausted team silently eating in The Avengers' second post-credits scene?

Shawarma was a late idea, shot the day after the world premiere, which is why Chris Evans hides behind his hand: a prosthetic jaw covered the beard he had since grown.

Which studio, his home for nearly two decades, did Christopher Nolan leave before Oppenheimer?

Warner Bros. lost him after it chose to put its 2021 films on HBO Max the same day as in cinemas; Oppenheimer went to Universal, his first film made elsewhere since Memento.

Barbie's only Academy Award win came for which song?

What Was I Made For?, by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, beat the film's showier nominee, I'm Just Ken; Barbie's seven other nominations, Best Picture among them, won nothing.

Who directed Barbie, the highest-grossing film of 2023?

Greta Gerwig wanted Barbie Land so saturated that, by her production designer's account, building it used up one paint maker's entire stock of a fluorescent pink.

Which actor returned in Top Gun: Maverick as Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky, the last screen role of his life?

Val Kilmer had lobbied publicly for the part since 2015; his old rival is now an admiral, the friend whose protection has kept Maverick in the Navy.

In Top Gun: Maverick, the actors were filmed in the back seats of which real Navy fighter?

F/A-18 Super Hornet: the studio paid the Navy as much as $11,374 for every flight hour, and a Navy pilot sat in front because the stars were not allowed to touch the controls.

Which of these is one of the four new emotions that arrive in Inside Out 2 (2024)?

Ennui, the French word for boredom, is voiced with a French accent by Adèle Exarchopoulos; Shame was developed for the film as well and then dropped on a psychologist's advice.

Who voices Anxiety in Inside Out 2?

Maya Hawke plays the orange newcomer who catastrophizes every situation and takes over Riley's controls; Ayo Edebiri is in the cast too, as Envy, in 2024's highest-grossing film.

Which Shakespeare play, about an uncle who murders a king for his throne, inspired Disney's The Lion King?

Hamlet came up in a story meeting, and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg told the writers to put in as much of the play as they could, though they found that too forced.

Which rock band scored its first US number-one single with a ballad written for Armageddon (1998)?

Aerosmith debuted at number one with I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, a ballad that songwriter Diane Warren had imagined for Celine Dion.

Which band recorded Eye of the Tiger for Rocky III after Sylvester Stallone was refused a Queen song?

Survivor got the call only after Queen would not license Another One Bites the Dust, and Stallone asked for a pulse to match the punches of the boxing scenes.

Which James Cameron epic was due in cinemas on July 2, 1997, before delays pushed it to December?

Titanic was scheduled to exploit the lucrative summer season, but on May 29, 1997, Paramount postponed it to December 19, six days before Christmas.

Which Pixar sequel, the highest-grossing film of 2010, was the first animated film to gross $1 billion?

Toy Story 3 crossed the $1 billion mark on its seventy-first day of release and stayed the highest-grossing animated film until Frozen overtook it.

Which 1988 summer hit put Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny on screen together for the first time?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit borrowed a rival studio's stars on one condition: its characters had to get exactly as much screen time as Disney's own.

Which injury did Tom Cruise suffer leaping between buildings for Mission: Impossible – Fallout?

A broken ankle forced a hiatus in filming, which inflated the budget but gave director Christopher McQuarrie time to develop unfinished scenes.

Which Predator (1987) cast member, a former pro wrestler, was later elected governor of Minnesota?

Jesse Ventura was one of two future governors in the cast, beside Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a third actor from the film ran unsuccessfully in Kentucky.

Which 1999 summer horror hit, shot for no more than $60,000, was sold to audiences mainly through the internet?

The Blair Witch Project built its legend on a website of fake police reports and interviews that had drawn 160 million hits by August 1999.

Which 2001 summer hit, released that May, won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?

Shrek took the inaugural award, and its video release went on to become the biggest-selling DVD of its time, with more than 5.5 million sales.

Which James Bond actor played the hero's father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)?

Sean Connery first turned the part down because he was only twelve years older than his screen son, but the director felt no one else could play it.

Which actor won a posthumous Academy Award for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)?

Heath Ledger died several months after finishing the role and before the film opened, so his family accepted the supporting-actor Oscar on his behalf.

Which British actor made his big-screen debut in his early forties as Die Hard villain Hans Gruber?

Alan Rickman became a celebrity through the role, and one scene was written after the screenwriter overheard him putting on an American accent.

Which actress played Annie, the passenger who ends up driving the bus, in Speed (1994)?

Sandra Bullock won the part after auditioning alongside Keanu Reeves in physically demanding scenes, a test of whether the pair had chemistry.

Which actor played Lieutenant Dan, the platoon leader wounded in Vietnam, in Forrest Gump (1994)?

Gary Sinise got the part after Joe Pesci and Kevin Bacon were considered, playing an officer whose ancestors had died in every major American war.

Who won an Academy Award as the psychic Oda Mae Brown in Ghost, the highest-grossing film of 1990?

Whoopi Goldberg won the supporting-actress Oscar for the July release, which cost about $22 million to make and grossed $505 million.

Which composer won Academy Awards for his scores to both Jaws and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?

John Williams won for Star Wars too, and the American Film Institute ranked that score first on its list of the greatest film scores.

Whose ballad from Kevin Costner's 1991 Robin Hood film spent sixteen straight weeks atop the UK chart?

Bryan Adams broke a British record that had stood since 1955, when Slim Whitman's Rose Marie managed eleven weeks at number one.

Which pop star wrote and recorded a whole soundtrack album for Tim Burton's Batman (1989)?

Prince was only meant to lend two older songs, but instead recorded an album's worth of new material, and its single Batdance reached number one.

Which comedian voices Dory, the forgetful blue tang, in Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003)?

Ellen DeGeneres got the part, first imagined as male, after the director watched her change the subject five times in one sentence on her sitcom.

Which director, hired for Bad Boys on the strength of his music videos, made the first five Transformers films?

Michael Bay came to features from commercials and music videos, winning a Grand Prix Clio for the 1993 Got Milk? advert about Aaron Burr.

Who directed Iron Man (2008) and also appears on screen as Tony Stark's driver, Happy Hogan?

Jon Favreau's film opened the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he was still turning up as Happy Hogan in its films sixteen years later.

Which action star voices the tree-like alien Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)?

Vin Diesel also provided motion capture for Groot and recorded the character's voice again for several foreign-language releases of the film.

Which British actor played both Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and the lead in Mad Max: Fury Road?

Tom Hardy rose to international prominence with Mad Max: Fury Road, which grossed over $378 million, the most of any film in that series.

In Inception (2010), which small object does Cobb use as a totem to tell dreams from reality?

A spinning top that never falls means Cobb is still dreaming, and an animation of it was all the film's official website showed after the first teaser.

Which producer is behind the Top Gun, Bad Boys and Pirates of the Caribbean film franchises?

Jerry Bruckheimer was honored in July 2003 as the first producer in Hollywood history to have the two highest-grossing films of a single weekend.

Which Cold War action film, released in August 1984, was the first to reach cinemas rated PG-13?

Red Dawn opened on August 10, 1984, weeks after the new rating took effect on July 1, with a story of teenage guerrillas resisting a Soviet invasion of Colorado.

Which Gladiator (2000) actor died mid-shoot, his last scenes finished with a body double and a digital face?

Oliver Reed, who played the gladiator trainer Proximo, died of a heart attack on May 2, 1999, before all of his scenes had been filmed.

Which X-Men role did Dougray Scott have to give up when Mission: Impossible 2 ran over schedule?

Wolverine went instead to Hugh Jackman, a last-second choice making his American debut, who was cast three weeks into filming.

Who directed Wonder Woman (2017), her first feature film since Monster won Charlize Theron an Oscar?

Patty Jenkins shot the film on 35mm rather than digital video because she felt it added to the escapism, and it grossed over $824 million worldwide.

Which German director made Independence Day (1996) and the American Godzilla of 1998?

Roland Emmerich's alien-invasion film was the first to gross $100 million in under a week, and he also planned an asteroid movie until Armageddon used the idea.

Which science-fiction author's short stories became the summer hits Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002)?

Philip K. Dick gave the story behind Total Recall a far wordier title, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, and it has been filmed twice.

Which effects company, founded by George Lucas for Star Wars, built the computer models of Jurassic Park's dinosaurs?

Industrial Light & Magic owes its name to a zoning map: Lucas saw that the team's first location was marked as light industrial.

Which studio backed Star Wars (1977) after United Artists and Universal had both passed on the idea?

20th Century Fox said yes because executive Alan Ladd Jr. believed in the director's talent; Lucas later said Ladd had invested in him rather than in the film.

Which 1972 crime saga did Jaws overtake in just 78 days as North America's highest-grossing film?

The Godfather had earned $86 million, and in sailing past it Jaws became the first film to take $100 million in US theatrical rentals.

Which 1977 comedy about truckers bootlegging beer finished second only to Star Wars at the US box office?

Smokey and the Bandit cost $4.3 million and grossed about $127 million, after drive-in screenings across the South prompted a nationwide release.

Which Kevin Costner epic, released in July 1995, was the most expensive film ever made at the time?

Waterworld saw its costs swell from $100 million to an estimated $175 million, and one of its floating sets sank in heavy seas off Hawaii.

Which cinematographer of Die Hard went on to direct both Speed and Twister?

Jan de Bont made his directing debut with Speed, a sleeper hit in 1994, and followed it two years later with the even more successful Twister.

Which Muppets performer was the voice and puppeteer of Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back (1980)?

Frank Oz was meant to work only the puppet, but a voice to match his performance proved too hard to cast, so he spoke the part as well.

Which Mexican director made Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, though he had not read the books?

Alfonso Cuarón was reluctant at first, having seen none of the earlier films either, but later called the shoot the two sweetest years of his life.

Which Oingo Boingo frontman composed the orchestral score for Tim Burton's Batman (1989)?

Danny Elfman worried that he had never worked on a production so large, and a skeptical producer was convinced only on hearing the opening number.

Which new wave band performed Take My Breath Away, the Oscar-winning song from Top Gun (1986)?

Berlin got the song after it was first offered to The Motels, and it went on to win both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for original song.

Which ballad, written for Grease (1978) halfway through filming, earned an Academy Award nomination?

Hopelessly Devoted to You was written because Olivia Newton-John's contract promised her a solo that did not yet exist; it lost the Oscar to Last Dance.

Apollo 13 (1995) shot its weightless scenes aboard a NASA training plane known by which nickname?

Vomit Comet flights leave about two thirds of passengers airsick, and each dive gave the cast only around 25 seconds of weightlessness to film in.

Under which fake title was Return of the Jedi filmed to hide the production from fans and the press?

Blue Harvest was passed off as a horror picture, a ruse that also stopped local suppliers from raising their prices for a Star Wars production.

Which African country hosted the Mad Max: Fury Road shoot after rain made Australia's desert bloom?

Namibia stepped in after unexpected heavy rains brought wildflowers to the desert around Broken Hill, and most filming was based in Dorob National Park.

Which Greek island, home to Kastani beach, was the main filming location for Mamma Mia! (2008)?

Skopelos supplied most of the outdoor scenes, with neighbouring Skiathos and the mainland seaside village of Damouchari used for the rest.

RoboCop (1987) is set in a crumbling Detroit, but which Texas city supplied most of its locations?

Dallas was chosen over Houston because it offered modern buildings alongside older, less-maintained areas where explosives could be used.

Which 1977 William Friedkin thriller briefly took over Star Wars' screen at Mann's Chinese Theatre?

Sorcerer was contractually owed the screen, but it did so poorly there by comparison that Star Wars quickly returned to the theater.

Which 1986 flop, executive-produced by George Lucas, was Marvel's first theatrical feature since a 1944 serial?

Howard the Duck reached the screen because Lucas had long admired the comic, calling it very funny and praising its blend of film noir and absurdism.