5. As of 2016, the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens had the largest domestic box office of
all time.
6. Young people who own lots of “devices” such as tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles
are unlikely to go to theaters to see movies.
7. The United States produces more movies every year than any other country.
8. The Bechdel Test for Women in Film is designed to see how much violence is directed against
women in movies.
9. The Production Code started in the 1930s to encourage “lustful kissing” as a way of attracting
women to the movies.
10. Major movie studios like to release NC-17 rated movies because they know that they will
attract large audiences at mall theaters.
11. Movies are rated by a board consisting of Los Angeles–area parents.
12. The movies with the biggest box offices are generally rated G or PG because parents feel safe
about bringing their children to see them.
13. Directors often “re–cut” their films, taking out violence or explicit sex, in order to move their
movie from an NC-17 to an R rating.
14. Big-budget movies can earn as much from ancillary rights as they do from the domestic box
office.
15. The movie The Blair Witch Project demonstrated that any movie, no matter how bad, could
become a success if you spent millions of dollars promoting it.
16. In 2007, for the first time, movie fans could see the Oscar-nominated short films as digital
downloads from Apple’s iTunes store.
17. Long-tail movie sources such as Netflix and iTunes allow people in rural areas to see obscure
movies that would never play their local theaters.
18. Movie rental source Netflix does most of its business renting current best-selling DVD
releases.
19. Roger Ebert’s movie review Web site gets most of its traffic from a small number of reviews
of major blockbuster films.
20. Disney “princess films” such as The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas feature dialog primarily
between girls and women.
21. One explanation for why so few actors of color get honored with Oscars is that most of the
voters for the Oscars are older, white males.
22. “Whitewashing” is the process of getting rid of ugly details about the lives of historic figures
when movies are made about them.
23. Directors are unwilling to make movies with diverse casts featuring women and non-white
actors because such movies rarely see box office success.
Essay
1. List two of the many problems filmmakers faced when they went from silent to talking films.
2. Who was the head of the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee?
3. What movie technological innovation do Dial M for Murder, Avatar, and Gravity all have in
common?
4. What are the three questions in the Bechdel Test for Women in Film?
5. Jaws ushered in the era of the ______.
6. What major movie research project did Herbert Blumer work on?
7. India’s movie industry in Mumbai is popularly known as ______.
8. How did the producers of The Blair Witch Project promote their film?
9. Early Edison “peepshow” projectors in nickelodeons were known as ______.
10. The movie ______ established the basic rules for cinematic storytelling that are still used
today.
11. The movie and recording industries have faced numerous new technologies such as the VCR,
the digital video recorder, and MP3 players. How have these industries reacted to these new
technologies? Have they welcomed or rejected them? Why? Which of the Seven Secrets apply to
this answer?
12. What makes a movie profitable? In a brief essay, discuss the major elements that decide
whether a movie will be a financial success.
13. In a brief essay, discuss why we have the movie rating system we have today, and where it
came from. What are the major complaints about the system? How does Hollywood defend itself
against these complaints?
14. In a brief essay, explain how the movie viewing experience has been changed by the arrival
of new technology.
15. Some critics claim that movies with more practical effects look more real, or somehow
better, than those with primarily digital special effects. Support or attack this argument using
material from your reading.