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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Hollywood Studios Roll Out Big Budget Flicks1
Every summer, big Hollywood studios roll out big budget flicks, rich in special effects and celebrity3 actors. These blockbusters attract large audiences to multiplex and luxury movie theaters. Revenues from domestic and international ticket sales of these movie behemoths reach the billions of dollars.
Don't go in the water
The trend for summer superflicks started forty years ago with Jaws4.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg scared summer vacationers with this suspenseful5 shark attack story featuring a terrifying great white, a killing6 machine. Jaws raked in half a billion dollars worldwide, making it the highest grossing film of its time.
The on-screen recipe of thrills and chills continues today.
Avengers? or San Andreas? The tsunami7 of ticket sales at home and abroad towers over the hundreds of millions it took to produce these action mega-flicks. Shown in IMAX and 3D, extravaganzas like these are the offspring of big Hollywood studios and multiplex theaters. Their theme, saving the world from monsters or natural disasters of catastrophic proportions, is rather consistent.
In San Andreas, a massive earthquake threatens to devour8 California and action superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays a rescue pilot battling against time to save his daughter, while in the process saving everyone else lucky enough to be in his path. The exceptional 3D visuals make up for what is, to say the least, a mediocre9 script. In its opening weekend, San Andreas grossed over $50 million, while Marvel's latest superhero flick2, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, a $250 million production, has so far brought in over a billion dollars worldwide. Disaster films are Hollywood's major export as they cross cultural barriers and can excite any audience, while top stars such as The Avengers' Robert Downy Junior, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth are bankable the world over.
Favorites return
For the older crowd, Hollywood also invests heavily in productions that hearken back to older film franchises11. This summer, 14 years after Spielberg’s last Jurassic Park installment12, Jurassic World comes roaring back, with a larger, fiercer T-Rex wreaking13 havoc14. The film cost $150 million, and the revenues? The sky's the limit. The film's premiere in Washington, DC, featured endless lines of Indomitus Rex's movie fans. Universal Studios will profit not just from theater ticket sales but also from its pricey admission fees to the Jurassic Park theme park in Orlando, Florida, and its movie merchandise in the U.S. and abroad.
Other blockbusters return with mature mega-stars, mainly men, who still hold a spell over movie-goers. They capitalize on the 3D and IMAX film technologies to drive Hollywood's money-making machine. Tom Cruise returns to Mission Impossible – Rogue15 Nation, to take on, well, a rogue nation. The new MI5 - as the film is abbreviated16 affectionately - is the fifth of the series and a sure international box office success.
But wait! Arnold Swarzenegger is back, too!
In Terminator Genysis, the fifth installment of the Terminator franchise10, Arnold Swarzenegger, soon to be 70, plays the iconic terminator-turned-savior-of-humanity, and proves he can still carry his weight and bring the masses to the theaters.
1 flicks | |
(尤指用手指或手快速地)轻击( flick的第三人称单数 ); (用…)轻挥; (快速地)按开关; 向…笑了一下(或瞥了一眼等) | |
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2 flick | |
n.快速的轻打,轻打声,弹开;v.轻弹,轻轻拂去,忽然摇动 | |
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3 celebrity | |
n.名人,名流;著名,名声,名望 | |
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4 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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5 suspenseful | |
adj.悬疑的,令人紧张的 | |
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6 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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7 tsunami | |
n.海啸 | |
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8 devour | |
v.吞没;贪婪地注视或谛听,贪读;使着迷 | |
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9 mediocre | |
adj.平常的,普通的 | |
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10 franchise | |
n.特许,特权,专营权,特许权 | |
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11 franchises | |
n.(尤指选举议员的)选举权( franchise的名词复数 );参政权;获特许权的商业机构(或服务);(公司授予的)特许经销权v.给…以特许权,出售特许权( franchise的第三人称单数 ) | |
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12 installment | |
n.(instalment)分期付款;(连载的)一期 | |
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13 wreaking | |
诉诸(武力),施行(暴力),发(脾气)( wreak的现在分词 ) | |
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14 havoc | |
n.大破坏,浩劫,大混乱,大杂乱 | |
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15 rogue | |
n.流氓;v.游手好闲 | |
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16 abbreviated | |
adj. 简短的,省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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