The word "blockbuster" changes meaning

In the pages of TIME, blockbuster was used to describe surprising news. In 1943, TIME used the word to describe a movie. The critics called the film adaptation of Mission to Moscow "as explosive as a blockbuster."

Not long after, the word started to refer specifically to movies that were commercially successful. The word became associated primarily with popular entertainment in general and with the big-budget, high-impact Hollywood hits.

Eventually, the idea of a blockbuster movie became associated with summer action movies, especially after Steven Spielberg's thriller, Jaws, released in the summer of 1975.

When Star Wars came out two years later, blockbuster became a synonym for the summer blockbuster genre.