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Richard Maltby's Hollywood Cinema (2003) Discusses In-depth The Convergence ...

Richard Maltby's Hollywood Cinema (2003) discusses in-depth the convergence of Hollywood film-making and marketing, of which Maltby's perspective of how in today's overcrowded marketplace marketing and advertising delivers ‘multi-million dollar box office successes' to sell us our hopes and dreams by feeding our subconscious with desire is of great interest to this project. In the author's opinion, the concept of film-making, marketing and advertising are closely intertwined. As the author explains, Hollywood has the aim to generate the ‘maximum pleasure for the maximum number for the maximum profit'. The more entertaining, the more people are attracted to it. The more interest a movie gets, the more profit can be gained. Everything is about entertainment and money, the former being often said to be declining.
Hollywood Cinema is believed to be a groundbreaking text in the field of marketing a Hollywood film in so far as, although it mostly explores Hollywood film-making and the development and dominance of the high concept movie, the book's primary asset lies in presenting a unique perspective of marketing, advertising and public relations techniques, which are used to create desire around a film. The author does not just apply the general theory of marketing to Hollywood film-making; instead, he has developed a new study of the marketing of films based on his own experience and knowledge. The research focuses on numerous examples of Hollywood films in a global perspective and the reasons behind certain publicity stunts and campaigns. The real life examples make the study extremely valuable to a critical reader.
More authors to share Maltby's point of view that Hollywood prefers the production of high concept films are Hill et al. Their book American Cinema and Hollywood: Critical Approaches (2000) the authors examine the construction of Hollywood films and argue that they are created and deployed by Hollywood producers to play two significant roles in modern life in democratic societies. The first role is that film characters are chosen to act as representative embodiments for their audiences by suggesting that anyone can achieve successful individuality and the American lifestyle. The second role is that they strive to control audience preferences by acting as brand names, creating desires and organizing various tastes and lifestyles into marketable units, which are further used by Hollywood's marketing and advertising professionals to promote and sell successful products to as many markets as possible. In their opinion, audiences possess a desire to dress and look similar to film characters and actors because it ultimately enables them to feel better about themselves.


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