SMALL SCREEN.

Byline: - Valerie Kuklenski

BOFFO BOX OFFICE: Cable channel Trio is banging the drum for its new documentary, buying air time tonight on KTLA for ``The Blockbuster Imperative.'' The documentary picks up where Trio's recently debuted ``Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' leaves off, looking at the shift from low-budget, high-art pictures of the late '60s through early '80s to the mass-marketed megabuck productions that satisfy studio bean counters if not film critics. As former Fox chief Bill Mechanic says in the documentary, ``Garbage in, garbage out.'' ``The Blockbuster Imperative'' shows on Trio March 22, and ``Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' repeats on the channel March 23 and throughout April.

THE BLOCKBUSTER IMPERATIVE, 11 tonight, KTLA.

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Will Smith, left, and Jeff Goldblum play unlikely heroes who save the Earth in the blockbuster film ``Independence Day.''