Chapter 8
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. The 2015 summer hit movie Mad Max: Fury Road was successful in part because ______.
a. it was part of the long-running Mad Max franchise
b. it featured a strong cast with lots of interesting roles for women
c. it featured lots of practical effects that gave it a feeling of reality
d. all of the above
2. Which of the following was the first major movie with multiple scenes and a plot?
a. The Jazz Singer
b. Gone with the Wind
c. The Great Train Robbery
d. E.T.
3. Who developed the earliest portable movie cameras?
a. Thomas Edison
b. Auguste Marie and Louis Jean Lumière
c. Étienne-Jules Marey
d. Eadweard Muybridge
4. Who was the director of Birth of a Nation, the controversial silent film about the Civil War?
a. Cecil B. DeMille
b. Edwin Armstrong
c. Charlie Chaplin
d. D. W. Griffith
5. Among the earliest movie stars in the United States were which of the following?
a. Harry Warner
b. Humphrey Bogart
c. Florence Lawrence
d. Natalie Portman
6. In the 1930s and 1940s, the studios required theaters to schedule a large number of lesser
movies in order to get one or two major films. This practice was known as which of the
following?
a. block booking
b. right of first refusal
c. pickup
d. sliding scale
7. Movie attendance peaked in which year?
a. in 1926
b. In 1946
c. in 1966
d. in 1996
8. The large number of smaller theaters grouped together that replaced the large Art Deco movie
palaces are known as which of the following?
a. multiplexes
b. Cineramas
c. blockbusters
d. Hollywood Tens
9. The film that created the idea of the summer blockbuster was which of the following?
a. Gone with the Wind
b. Jaws
c. Star Wars
d. Superman Returns
10. Which of the following was the movie that sold the most tickets of all time?
a. Titanic
b. Gone with the Wind
c. Star Wars
d. Avatar
11. By 2012, ______ was the most popular way to watch movies at home.
a. VHS tapes
b. DVDs
c. Blu Ray discs
d. Streaming video services
12. The year 2005 was noteworthy in the movie industry for which of the following reasons?
a. It was the first time in two decades that the annual overall box office declined.
b. It was the first time in two decades that the annual overall box office increased by 20 percent.
c. More people went to the movies in 2005 than in any other year.
d. It was the first year a major movie was released that was shot digitally.
13. Ancillary markets for movies include which of the following?
a. international distribution rights
b. network television rights
c. toys and clothing
d. all of the above
14. A major reason that Disney makes princess films such as Frozen is because it offers lots of
chances to offer tie-in merchandising and theme park attractions for young girls.
15. Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne Marey are famous for which of the following?
a. They conducted early experiments on depicting motion with photos.
b. They cochaired the House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities
c. They called television “a vast wasteland.”
d. They were the founding members of the first disco group to have a record on the Billboard
Hot 100.
16. Which of the following movies proved the value of Internet promotion?
a. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
b. The Blair Witch Project
c. The Hateful Eight
d. Slumdog Millionaire
17. Movies are often produced for the IMAX format so that ______.
a. they are guaranteed to be shown in close to 1,000 theaters
b. they can get premium ticket prices from fans
c. the directors can have a larger format to present their movie with
d. all of the above
18. Which of the following was one of the earliest rebellions against the controls of the studio
system?
a. the creation of talking pictures
b. the growth of block booking
c. the establishment of United Artists
d. the growth of color movies
19. Once it was introduced, almost every movie made used which of the following technologies?
a. color
b. sound
c. 3-D
d. Cinerama
20. The blacklist of the 1940s and 1950s was driven by which of the following?
a. a desire to increase movie profits
b. a fear of communism
c. a fear of terrorism
d. none of the above
21. Hollywood’s response to the rise of television was to do which of the following?
a. start making larger-than-life movies
b. start controlling costs by making lower-budget movies
c. making more musicals
d. start basing movies on high-brow plays and novels
22. Movies such as Dial M for Murder, The Ten Commandments, and Spartacus were a response
to which of the following?
a. the rising size of television audiences
b. the production code
c. the Hollywood Blacklist
d. the growth of talking pictures
23. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was a significant movie for which of the following
reasons?
a. It was the first major American movie to be filmed with all digital sets and backgrounds.
b. It was the top grossing movie of 2004.
c. It was the most positively reviewed movie of 2004.
d. all of the above
24. The surprise movie hit 300 was a success in part for which of the following reasons?
a. It was based on a dramatic graphic novel.
b. It controlled costs through the use of digital sets and backgrounds.
c. It had an audience-pleasing story.
d. all of the above
25. Movie profitability is determined by which of the following?
a. box office receipts
b. home video sales
c. the budget for making the film
d. all of the above
26. The movie The Fault in Our Stars was a profitable hit because ______.
a. it had a big name cast of stars and a big budget
b. it had a small budget and a built-in fan base from the young adult novel it was based on
c. it was released in 3-D, which allowed theaters to charge more for tickets
d. you can’t fool me; The Fault in Our Stars was a box office flop
27. Spike Lee has maintained his independence as a movie director by doing which of the
following?
a. making sure his movies had a large box office
b. controlling the cost of his movies
c. directing films that had the broadest popular appeal
d. directing summer blockbusters
28. Why did the movie industry under the president of the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America Will H. Hays begin to censor films?
a. Because Hollywood wanted to be responsible and not produce films that would lead to
criminal or immoral behavior.
b. Because many states and communities were threatening to set up local censorship boards that
might have inconsistent standards of what they would or would not accept.
c. Because actors and actresses had protested having to do nude scenes in films.
d. Because talking films seemed much more explicit to audiences than did silent films.
True/False
1. In the studio system, an actor, writer, or director could work only for the studio that had his or
her contract.
2. The “Hollywood Ten” are the writers who made David Letterman a star.
3. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo wrote screenplays under an assumed name while he was
blacklisted in Hollywood for being a communist.
4. After World War II, movie attendance declined due to competition from television.