ABSTRACT
On the radio, a medley of songs from the 1978, dubbed the ‘Grease Megamix,’ was receiving maximum airplay, causing the film’s soundtrack album to dominate the Billboard charts once again, and reaching number five on the pop catalog album chart ahead of both R.E.M. and Pearl Jam’s new albums. In film historical terms, of course, the Grease ‘empire’ fits easily, if however stunningly, within the frame of the modern-day global ‘blockbuster.’ Although it was released three years after the watershed moment identified by most film historians as ushering in the new ‘blockbuster age,’ Grease certainly offers an exemplar of the new way to do business in a New Hollywood. The evolution of the blockbuster has proved more of an expansion on the model set by Jaws rather than offering any major variation, sending the profits and risks associated with these exploitation strategies skyrocketing.
