[1] The period was when the "high concept" picture was established by producer Don Simpson,[2] where films were expected to be easily marketable and understandable.
At the same time in Eastern cinema, the Hong Kong film industry entered a boom period that significantly elevated its prominence in the international market.
The course strengthened towards creating ever-larger megahit films, which earned more in their opening weeks than most previous movies due in part to scheduling releases when there were less competition for audience interest.
Much of the reliance on these effects-driven movies was due in part to the Star Wars films at the advent of this decade and the new cinematic visuals they helped to pioneer.
[7] However, film theorist David Bordwell countered this notion, saying that the "megapicture mentality" was already existent in the 1970s, which is evident in the ten highest-grossing films of that decade, as well as with how many of the filmmakers part of New Hollywood were still able to direct many great pictures in the 1980s (Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, etc.).