The Chronicles of Narnia: A Century of American Film

A new book on the history of American film is out: George Lucas’s Blockbusting, with a foreword by director Francis Ford Coppola. IndieWire reports that the nearly 950-page book

sets out to trace the history of American film, decade-by-decade. While it ostensibly focuses on 300 so-called blockbuster hits, its chapter-opening essays, sidebar notes and statistics provide an informed and impressive overview of changing trends in moviemaking—and moviegoing—throughout the 20th century and into the dawn of the 21st. While at first glance it appears that the book’s emphasis is on the business end of movies (providing revealing, inflation-adjusted statistics on admission prices, star and director salaries, production costs and box-office figures) it also devotes considerable space to artistic advances and milestones.

#113 at the box office in Lucas’s 300 select films, which IndieWire notes is “adjusted to reflect fixed monetary values,” is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The movie entry ”include[s] all the relevant facts and figures, and award recognition, as well as background information on the production (including last-minute cast changes and other ‘fun facts’).”  You can read more here.