The term blockbuster was originally coined during World War II to describe an eight-ton American aerial bomb which contained enough explosive to level an entire city block. After the war, the term quickly caught the public's attention and became part of the American vernacular to describe any occurrence that was considered to be epic in scale. However, there was no universal agreement as to what events actually qualified as blockbusters so the post war world was inundated with colossal art exhibitions, epic athletic events, and even "larger than life" department store sales all lumped under the heading of blockbuster.

By the mid-1950s, though, the term began to be increasingly applied to the motion picture screen as a catch-all term for the wide-screen cinemascope epics that Hollywood created to fend off the threat of television, which was taking over the nation's living rooms. Such films as Cecil B...