The Structure of Megahit Movies
Story Design for Creating Popular Hollywood Movies

Hollywood Studio Executives seek a blockbuster movie for their summer and winter release dates that can be the “tentpole” project that supports the rest of their yearly release schedule. Summer and winter (Thanksgiving through New Years Day) are the times when students are home from school and flock to the theaters, providing the studios with their largest potential audiences. Many executives seek blockbuster projects in material that have proven successful drawing young audiences in others other markets, such as popular computer video games, the Harry Potter novels or Marvel comic books

Our main concern in this article is with the story structure of megahit movies for which a built-in audience did not already exist. What is it about the experience of viewing the original films that caused domestic theater patrons to pay over $250 million?

The enormous box-office gross of an original film with new characters is usually generated by “word-of-mouth” recommendations to view the movie and the repeat attendance by the initial audience. A film can only become a megahit if members of the audience tell their friends that they must see the film. They also must go back to see the movie not just a second time, but also a third, fourth, and fifth time.

Why do members of an audience want to see these movies again and again? When experiencing a movie, an audience sits in a dark room for about two hours. They begin by staring at a blank screen, then experience a series of images and sounds that have an emotional impact on them. How do these films create a satisfying emotional experience for the audience? To understand this is to understand the psychology of the audience. That is, how do members of the audience emotionally react to the characters and the situations that they see in the movie?

Most of these movies are either fantasy films or action-adventure films with fantastic elements. I use the word “fantastic” to describe the exhibition of extremely imaginative images, or images extraordinarily unreal in conception, design or construction. But not all fantasy films achieve megahit status. Obviously, fantasy elements alone are not sufficient for large box-office grosses. So, what are the essential attributes of a megahit movie?

When writing the first edition of The Megahit Movies book, I studied films that had U.S. Domestic Box-Office Grosses of $250 million or more, in order to determine if there existed story structures common to all these movies. Although there did appear to be a common paradigm for designing stories for popular Hollywood movies, not all of the megahits shared all of the same story structures. For example, many screenwriting gurus tell us that the essential structure of any story is that of a protagonist overcoming obstacles in order to achieve an objective. But not all of

the megahits have a single protagonist. Some, like Men In Black, have dual protagonists, and others, like Independence Day, have multiple protagonists, who are all trying to achieve the same primary objective: save the human race from annihilation by aliens.

Yet most of these megahit movies have the same core story elements: a unique object desired by both a protagonist and an antagonist. For example, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Ark of the Covenant was the unique object desired by the hero, Indiana Jones, and the villain, Belloc. The protagonist was the character with whom the audience most identified and for whom the audience had empathy, while the antagonist was a villain hated by the viewers. The unique object, like the Ark, usually represented the ultimate power in the universe. Not only were the lives of the protagonist and antagonist at stake in the struggle for its possession, but in the middle of this conflict was another character, the love interest of the protagonist. Marion was this character in Raiders. The protagonist also had at least one primary supporter who helped him on his quest (the Egyptian Sallah for Jones) while the antagonist had one or more henchmen to do his dirty work (the sadistic Nazi and the German soldiers for Belloc).

In the first ten minutes of the movie, the story attempts to hook the audience. This is often done by first having a scene in which the antagonist is introduced: a faceless villain that produces terror and hatred in the hearts of the audience. A problem is introduced which needs a hero. The protagonist then comes into the story. He is shown in a situation guaranteed to generate empathy for him with the audience. He reveals his dreams, his motivation, and the primary objective that he hopes will satisfy his personal needs. Then something happens that throws the protagonist out of his complacent everyday world. This is the inciting event which causes him to take action to fulfill his dreams.

For example, in Jurassic Park, the Raptor in the metal cage devours a human being, then Dr. Grant is introduced as an expert on dinosaurs. The inciting event occurs when Dr. John Hammond requests that Dr. Grant come to Jurassic Park. The unique object in this movie will be “the control of Jurassic Park,” with the humans as the protagonist and the raptors the antagonist. In Jaws, the great white shark devours a young woman swimming in the ocean, then the Police Captain Brody is introduced. The inciting event occurs with the discovery of the girl’s mutilated body on the beach.

As shown above, in many movies Spielberg does use the classic opening structure. But in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg starts his movie with a prologue to establish the bitter relationship between Jones and Belloc. Jones gets possession of an idol in the South American jungle, only to have it taken away from him by Belloc. The real story of this movie does not start until Jones is teaching at the University. In Raiders, the military intelligence officers asking Jones to seek the Ark is the inciting event that takes Jones out of the college and starts him on his quest for treasure. The protagonist’s primary objective becomes connected with the unique object that is also desired by the forces of the antagonist.

The first act of the movie shows the protagonist in pursuit of the first major subgoal he needs to accomplish to possess the unique object. For Jones, this is the headpiece of the staff of Ra. To achieve this subgoal he must overcome many obstacles and problems. The love interest is usually introduced in the first act, as a factor that creates more problems for the protagonist. Marion is not willing to give Jones the headpiece. The protagonist confronts the antagonist and prevents the antagonist from possessing both the primary objective and the love interest in the first act. The completion of the first subgoal results in the first plot twist and sends the protagonist off to accomplish subgoal 2. In Raiders, Jones fights with Belloc’s henchman in order to save Marion and to get possession of the headpiece. Once that is achieved, Jones and Marion travel to Cairo in search of the Well of Souls.

The pursuit of subgoal 2 provides the structure for the second act. The hero still must overcome difficult obstacles. At the end of the second act, the antagonist defeats the protagonist and prevents the protagonist from possessing both the primary objective and the love interest.

In Raiders, this occurs when Jones and Sallah have found the Ark and lift it out of the Well of Souls, only to have Belloc take it from him. This is the surprise plot twist. The Germans then toss Marion into the Well of Souls. Jones and Marion appear to be doomed as the fires dim and snakes crawl toward them. This is the moment of hopelessness and despair for the hero, and the audience believes that he will never see his dream come true, yet Jones and Marion do escape from this desperate situation.

In popular megahit movies, the antagonist will have possession of both the unique object and the love interest during the climax scene. Classic story theory states that in the climax scene, the protagonist will fight with the antagonist for both. During the battle, the protagonist triumphs and the antagonist is destroyed. Yet Spielberg does not use this in Raiders or many of his other movies. In Raiders, Jones and Marion are tied to a post and are forced to watch as Belloc opens the Ark. Jones does not defeat Belloc and the Germans! It is the spirits unleashed from the Ark that destroy them. Jones and Marion survive only because they close their eyes and refuse to look at the spirits. In many megahit movies, the protagonist does not directly kill the antagonist, but the antagonist dies as a result of some action he initiated in his attempt to destroy the protagonist. This is the case in Raiders. In Jurassic Park, Dr. Grant, Elle, and the children do not defeat the raptors. The humans are about to be devoured when a T-REX enters and kills the raptors. The protagonist and love interest survive, but they are not the victors.

In classic Hollywood story structure, after the climax scene we have a resolution scene in which all loose ends are resolved. The protagonist either obtains the unique object, or it is destroyed in the climax scene. The protagonist and the love interest are reunited, and the community celebrates their victory. In Raiders, the government officials take possession of the Ark, while Marion gets possession of Jones. In Jurassic Park, Dr. Grant, Elle, and the children all fly away from the danger and leave Jurassic Park to the dinosaurs.

Megahit movies always give the audience what they wanted, but in an unexpected way. The audience wants the protagonist to achieve his desired objective, but in an exciting and unpredictable way. They want movies filled with fascinating characters that the audience can care about. They want to see characters triumphing over impossible obstacles and withstanding devastating defeats, to eventually achieve the dreams that they desired. These movies have happy endings, and leave the audiences with an emotionally satisfying experience that causes them to tell friends and relatives to see the film, and for them to see it again and again. This is the fundamental necessary structure for creating a megahit movie.