Q&A: Why are they called ‘blockbusters’?

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, we're blockbusting…

Q: Hi AWC, I notice the Academy Awards are coming up. And that’s got me thinking about movies.

A: We’ve discussed the name origins of award shows before. But do you have another question?

Q: I have a few. Why are they called “movies” at all?

A: That one’s fairly easy – it’s a short form of the term “moving pictures”. The term seems to have originated around 1909. Of course, before the late 1920s, that’s all they were – moving pictures with no sound beyond a plinky plink musical track. It would become known as the Silent Era.

Q: Do you think Taylor Swift will have one of those?

A: Haha, eventually. Of course, in 1927, along came The Jazz Singer – the first film with talking in it. So naturally, these newfangled films were initially known as “talkies”. The word had been around for more than a decade by that point, but it really took hold throughout the 1930s as the world embraced this amazing new technology.

Q: It sure was a simpler time.

A: Eventually, the name “talkie” became rather redundant once every film had sound in it.

Q: A bit like marketing TVs as “colour televisions” beyond the 1970s?

A: Something like that.

Q: And when did we start calling lead actors and actresses “stars”?

A: Well, this one is much older than you might think. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, we were using this term for leading actors and singers as early as 1824 – long before films. Much like their astrological namesakes, these people shone brightly. Sports “stars” became a thing by 1916.

Q: And if a film is a “blockbuster”? What blocks did it bust?

A: A blockbuster film is defined by Macquarie Dictionary as “anything large and spectacular, as a lavish theatrical production, impressive political campaign”. Specifically in film, it is used to describe a movie that makes a lot of money at the box-office. The term “blockbuster” actually dates back to 1942 and was a large bomb (4000 pounds at least) used in World War II – designed to cause widespread destruction.

Q: How odd, because if a movie does badly, we call it a “bomb” or say that it “bombed”, yet here we have a literal bomb to denote success!

A: Yep, it’s a weird one. During the war, many films were described as “block-busters” to indicate the impact they were expected to have.

Q: Hiroshima just called…

A: Yeah, things got a little awkward after the atomic bombs were dropped in 1945 and the term didn’t really surface again until the 1950s. But the true “blockbuster era” didn’t begin until the mid-1970s, with films like Jaws, Star Wars and more.

Q: All of which, by the 1980s, you could rent on VHS overnight at Blockbuster!

A: Yes indeed, it would become synonymous with a large video rental company.

Q: Okay, what about when a famous actor has a “cameo” in a film? Where’s that from?

A: Ooooh good one. The word “cameo” goes back to the 1400s as “an engraving in relief upon a precious stone with two layers of colors”. Later it would simply denote a raised or carved work on a miniature scale. This miniature idea carried across to the stage and screen by 1928, with your version of a cameo as a “small character or part that stands out from other minor parts”.

Q: Fascinating… And why are actors called a “cast”?

A: This went all the way back to plays of the 1630s – taking the meaning of cast, like in fishing, to create “the form the thing takes after it has been thrown”. So a “cast” in this case is a group of actors “thrown together” to perform. The verb “to cast someone in a play” would arrive in the early 1700s.

Q: So to recap, if a film is good it’s a type of bomb and if it’s bad it’s a bomb. Cameos are actual miniature pieces of art and casts are thrown together.

A: That’s it!

Q: Well, all that’s left is to finish on a “cliffhanger”!

A: Ah, well, this one started life in short serialised episodes they would play in cinemas in the early 1930s. And they got their name because so often an episode would end with the heroine literally dangling off the edge of a cliff while the villain sawed through a fast-fraying rope. You’d have to wait a week to find out what happened.

Q: So nothing has really changed in that regard, except nowadays it doesn’t have to be a literal character hanging off a cliff, just some kind of scene where you need to know what happens?

A: That’s right. In fact, there’s a very funny story that sums up everything we’ve talked about today.

Q: Oh yeah? What is it?

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