![]() Adapting a novel into a screenplay for a general audience requires, like any successful screenplay, ensuring the plot gratifies moviegoer expectations that have been instilled by the Motion Picture Production Code, the structure of the film’s genre, and other sources specific to cinema.Ī.) The Motion Picture Production Code (Hayes Code) Sell 10,000 tickets opening week to a $20 million feature film and the film will lose theater screens quickly on a fast track to not being screened at all. Sell 10,000 copies of a novel during the first week of publication and it becomes a New York Times bestseller. That’s not to say that this guarantees success. The box office of a film based on a bestseller usually benefits opening week from fans of the novel. ![]() That is particularly true today given the imperative for a film to succeed during its opening week and even opening weekend. Since the advent of sound, Hollywood has drawn heavily on novels for plots and plot devices. Be aware that the only measure of a successful or unsuccessful film in this analysis is its box office profitability. We will examine here why the need to gratify expectations is responsible for this perception and how some filmmakers are trying to solve the problem. And yet, this truth is so counter intuitive that it is taboo for critics and invisible to moviegoers. Both criticize something a film does when often they are disappointed by something the film does not do.īut while visuals and dialogue create the illusion of plot originality, moviegoers are beginning to sense something is stale about the traditional two-hour feature film. Decades of filmmakers learning what does and what does not gratify audiences has made audience expectations ever more acute and the risk of disappointing them ever more perilous. The geneses of these expectations are usually less important than a century of cinema that hardwired them into moviegoers. I do not need to think in order to expect George Clooney get the girl or Denzel Washington to vanquish Russian gangsters. The expectations that are gratified or disappointed are shared by moviegoers, ergo their origins are cultural and biological. Film is a medium that appeals instantaneously to emotions rather than reflectively to the intellect. Plots of commercially successful films gratify moviegoers’ expectations more than their imaginations. They became classics thanks to profits from re-releases and television. For instance, several classic films celebrated today for their originality-e.g., “Bringing Up Baby” (1938), “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), “Vertigo” (1958)-were panned by critics and disappointed at the box office. The critic will counter that he expected the film to be unpredictable, that is, original. In fact, an original plot is far riskier than one that delivers the expected. ![]() And anything that meets expectations is predictable. Ironically, anything disappointing fails to meet expectations. Two disparaging words often used by film critics are disappointing and predictable. ![]() Audience Expectations in Romantic Comediesįiction c.The New Originality:The Feature Plotting Commercially Successful Screenplays:ī. ![]()
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