Movies & TV Facts for Kids
Behind-the-scenes facts from film and TV
The Wizard of Oz (1939) famously switches from black-and-white (actually sepia) to Technicolour when Dorothy arrives in Oz. This was one of the first major films to use colour so dramatically.
Titanic (1997) became the first film ever to gross over one billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Director James Cameron spent so much making it that the film's budget exceeded the cost of building the real Titanic.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was Disney's first full-length animated feature film. Many people in the film industry predicted it would be a disaster, calling it 'Disney's folly'.
Charlie Chaplin was one of the greatest stars of the silent film era, famous for his 'Tramp' character. He was so talented that he often wrote, directed, produced, and composed the music for his own films.
Jurassic Park (1993) combined animatronic dinosaur models with groundbreaking CGI to make the dinosaurs look real. Director Steven Spielberg originally planned to use mostly physical models.
The Academy Award statuette, nicknamed 'Oscar', depicts a knight holding a sword and standing on a reel of film. The figurine is 34 centimetres tall, weighs 3.8 kilograms, and is made of gold-plated britannia metal.
Avengers: Endgame (2019) became the highest-grossing film of all time, earning over 2.79 billion dollars worldwide. It took just five days to earn its first billion.
In the United Kingdom, films are given age ratings by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC): U (universal), PG (parental guidance), 12A, 15, and 18. These ratings help families decide what is suitable to watch.
The eight Harry Potter films collectively earned over 7.7 billion dollars worldwide, making the franchise one of the highest-grossing film series in cinema history.
IMAX screens are much larger than standard cinema screens — the biggest in the world is over 30 metres wide. IMAX cameras also capture more of the image, so the picture quality is significantly sharper.