Steven Spielberg is a name so synonymous with Hollywood blockbusters, he practically wrote the book on box office success. The acclaimed auteur has spent more than five decades crafting remarkably timeless films that stretch across genres, tackle mind-bending issues and grapple with the very fibres of our celestial being. From Jurassic Park to E.T., Munich to Saving Private Ryan, no living director can lay claim to a culture-defining catalogue quite like Spielberg’s (yes, I am including James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino).
So, when the first official billboards for the master filmmaker’s untitled upcoming release appeared earlier this month, the entertainment world took note. No plot, no explanation, just an upside-down eye embedded in the silhouette of a Northern cardinal, floating in a field of black, accompanied by an eerie promise: All Will Be Disclosed.
Simply writing that raises the hair on the back of my neck. Mark my words, Spielberg, who once taught audiences to fear the ocean with nothing more than two notes of music, is back to his very best; Not as a filmmaker, but as a marketer.
Disclosure Day
With Disclosure Day, as the film was revealed to be titled this week, Spielberg appears to be revisiting familiar thematic territory. A grounded UFO thriller that teeters on the pschyological, the upcoming flick harks back to the great sci-fi epics of the ’70s and ’80s. Disclosure Day is the director’s first original science fiction feature in years and stars the in-form Josh O’Connor, fresh off an acclaimed role in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, alongside Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and perennial Oscar favourite Colman Domingo.
And that’s about all we know.
Spielberg has, quite remarkably, managed to keep the plot and design of the film entirely under wraps. Even the first trailer for the film, released this week, provided next to no hard details about what fans can expect. Some are speculating that Disclosure Day could be a spiritual successor to Spielberg’s 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but at the moment it’s nothing but speculation and rumours. That’s precisely what Spielberg wants.
In playing his cards close to his chest, the influential filmmaker is employing a philosophy that he very much helped create, embracing the idea that movies are meant to be more than just mere entertainment. This is the start of a cinema spectacle and it comes right out of the Jaws playbook.
The Accidental Birth of the Summer Blockbuster
By now, we know that the acclaimed filmmaker’s 1975 film Jaws was a breakout success, but in the winter of 1974, it looked to be anything but. Originally scheduled for a Christmas release, countless issues with the mechanical shark, production delays and an increasingly fraught shoot blew the estimated time frame out of the water. With each passing day, the cast and crew of the beleaguered shark thriller were beginning to feel like they were headed for disaster.
But Spielberg, with just one directing credit to his name, was determined to succeed. Even when the release was pushed back to June—a spot generally reserved for studio failures or flops—he kept pushing for more. His plan was to re-market the film towards teenagers. By debuting in June, right as school was out, the filmmaker believed that he could tap into an audience that had traditionally been overlooked and under-appreciated. He was right.
Hordes of teenagers turned out to see Jaws, transforming what Universal originally thought would be a B-movie flop into a zeitgeist-making phenomenon. The studio saw Spielberg’s vision and backed the plan with a massive $1.8 million promotional blitz, launching Jaws into 400 theatres across the United States. It marked the first time that a major motion picture had been made accessible to everyone in America all at once, and so birthed the summer blockbuster.
The Jaws blitz included television spots, dozens of 30-second commercials on primetime network shows like The Waltons and Happy Days, alongside promotional merchandise; all of which contributed to the film’s staggering $260.7 million initial release.
Spielberg’s Return
What’s striking about Disclosure Day is how deliberately it echoes that original playbook. Trailers nowadays last minutes, essentially giving the audience an all-encompassing overview of the entire film; from start to finish. It’s less about drawing intrigue as it as about helping the viewer make a snap decision about whether they’ll scroll past it when it inevitably lands on Netflix.
Disclosure Day leverages restraint. The teaser offers no clear premise or confirmation of whether this UFO-themed thriller connects to Close Encounters of the Third Kind or stands entirely on its own. By refusing to over-explain, Spielberg invites audiences to speculate, theorise and project their own anxieties onto the blank space he’s created. And it comes at a pivotal time.
Can Spielberg Save Cinema?
When Spielberg helped to create the summer blockbuster, he was entirely unaware that he was giving Hollywood something it desperately craved. That isn’t the case now. Directors and filmmakers are very much aware of the challenges that face modern cinema.
Box office earnings are down, fewer and fewer people are going to the cinema and once-great bastions of Hollywood creativity are being sold to the highest bidder. There are even reports that streaming services are dumbing down their content so as to better appeal to the ‘second-screen economy’.
With Disclosure Day, Spielberg seems intent on reminding us all that great cinema can still draw a crowd, even if they don’t know what they’re in for. Will it work? Well, come June 12, when the film is finally released, all will be disclosed.
