October 28–30, 2024 | Indiana University Cinema | Bloomington, IN
Blockbuster films have been instrumental to the evolution of the art and economics of the film industry for decades. What Charles Acland (2020) calls the “blockbuster strategy”— “the rationale that embraces the big-budget cross-media production at the expense of other industrial and artistic approaches” (8)—underpins contemporary industrial, technological, and aesthetic models of global blockbuster filmmaking. Yet, blockbusters are on the precipice of change, and in the U.S., they are showing their first signs of sustained destabilization. Black Widow and The Eternals (both 2021) were the first two Marvel Cinematic Universe films to fail to make back their costs in theatrical release. Several box-office failures from established franchises landed in 2023, including The Marvels, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumania, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. That same year, Disney announced a decrease in funding and content development in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises. High-profile film cancellations like Batgirl, Black Adam 2, and Wonder Woman 3, combined with company streaming losses from subscriber plateaus and high-cost-low-return blockbuster franchise TV production, signal a growing caution around the form. Simultaneously, Hollywood continues to depend on international markets as the primary revenue drivers even while global blockbusters are thriving outside of Hollywood’s influence. Indeed, the global success of India’s RRR (2022) and China’s homegrown blockbusters like The Battle at Lake Changjin II (2022) and Moon Man (2022) generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Despite the complexity of these variables and the associated turbulence they engender, it’s clear blockbusters won’t be abandoned by global film industries anytime soon. As we approach the next phase of the blockbuster, this conference is interested and invested in thinking through the past and present of global blockbusters, broadly constructed, to imagine blockbuster futures across medium, industries, geographies, time, business models, genres, forms, and aesthetics.
Encouraged topics can include but are not limited to:
Intersections of blockbusters and race, representation, gender, and/or sexuality
Blockbusters as sites of transnational flows of financial and cultural capital
Blockbusters and geopolitical impacts on cultural creation
Blockbusters and postcolonialism/neocolonialism
Inclusive film production
Technological and aesthetic developments in effects-based filmmaking
Permutations in the development, use, and utility of the term “blockbuster”
Genre blockbusters/genre and blockbusters
Impacts of blockbuster filmmaking on exhibition
Indie blockbusters/independent film and blockbuster strategies
Blockbusters and streaming
Blockbusters and television
Intersections of games (electronic and other) and blockbusters
Risk in blockbuster filmmaking/financing
Work on specific franchises (MCU, DC Cinematic Universe, Fast and Furious franchise, Mission: Impossible franchise, etc.)
Blockbuster filmmaking as industrial strategy and practice
DEADLINE EXTENDED! Conference submissions are due by JUNE 1, 2024 11:59pm EDT. We strongly encourage practitioners—filmmakers, programmers, and exhibitors—to participate in the conference to help connect blockbusters to their broader impacts on film ecosystems. Submissions can take the form of preconstituted panels (min of 3 and max of 4 participants) or individual submissions.
panel abstract (1300 min-1500 max characters without spaces)
paper abstracts for each presenter (1300 min-1500 max characters without spaces)
bio for each presenter (300 min-400 max characters without spaces)
3 keywords that best describe your panel
• paper abstract (1300 min-3000 max characters without spaces) • presenter bio (300 min-400 max characters without spaces) • 3 keywords that best describe your panel
Blockbuster Futures Partners is funded in part by a grant from the IU Bloomington Public Arts & Humanities project and is presented in partnership with The Media School at IU Bloomington.
Keynotes + Publishing Opportunity
This conference will serve as the foundation of a special issue of The Journal of Popular Culture focused on blockbuster futures.
Blockbuster Futures Keynotes
Opening Keynote: David Ehrlich, Reviews Editor and Head Film Critic at IndieWire. Ehrlich is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Film Critics Society and received the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Film Critic
Closing Keynote: Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman and Dr. Novotny Lawrence. Dr. Coleman and Dr. Lawrence are co-editors of the forthcoming The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film (2024) and will present a keynote on race, genre filmmaking, and blockbuster resistance. Dr. Coleman is pProfessor of Media Studies and African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. Dr. Lawrence is Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies and the Director of the Black Film Center & Archive at Indiana University.
Includes a pre-conference weekend marathon screening of the Fast and Furious franchise (films 1 through 10: Part 1) on October 26th and 27th.
