The invulnerability of the majors was based on their
consistent success with virtually anything they made.
STANLEY KUBRICK

As the American film industry stood on the brink of its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a Yankelovich and Associates survey commissioned by the MPAA in 1968 revealed that 48 percent of the box-office admissions for that year were from the 16-24-year-old age group, and concluded that "being young and single is the overriding demographic pre-condition for being a frequent and enthusiastic moviegoer."¹ This came as news to the studio executives, who were pumping money into super-musicals modeled on THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Robert Wise, 1965), which by December 1968, after three years in release, had earned $72 million and displaced GONE WITH THE WIND (Victor Fleeting, 1939) as the top-grossing film of all time...