Is This The End Of The Cinema Summer Blockbuster?

The Summer Blockbuster

Born 20 June 1975 - Died Spring 2020?

Scores of people snaked their way around cinemas in late June 1975, to see a small movie about a big fish. That film was of course Steven Spielberg's Jaws, and it not  only kept people away from beaches but gave birth - along with Star Wars two years later - to the summer blockbuster. 

Over the years that has given us the likes of Tim Burton's Batman, Pirates of the Caribbean and has proved a fertile box office hunting ground for Spielberg time and again with E. T. - The Extra Terrestrial and Jurassic Park. 

Jaws was seen by over 60million Americans upon it’s initial US release

But now those cinemas are empty and so are the streets where those queues once lined. For now Studios are releasing films that would still be on the big screen, like Universal's The Invisible Man, onto premium rental. And the Trolls sequel is set to make its debut this way. 

Even numerous 45th anniversary screenings of Jaws have been cancelled. 

Another high profile casualty is over at Disney, the adaptation of the Eoin Colfer book Artemis Fowl. 

That $125 million Kenneth Branagh directed spectacular is now set to appear on Disney +, it's a film that even has its own link back to the film Jaws. Fowl is played by Ferdia Shaw, the grandson of Quint himself, Robert Shaw. 

Other films, such as Top Gun 2, have pushed their release back later in the year, or, like Ghostbusters Afterlife have dematerialised until next year. 

Daniel Craig's final James Bond adventure, No Time To Die, has also pushed back until later in the year. It would have just been released here in the UK. 

Let's hope it really is no time to die for cinema and the summer blockbuster. Hollywood will return?

By Dean Newman

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