Article published May 25, 2007
'Star Wars' still major force after 30 years
Ethan Sacks
New York Daily News
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It really was a long time ago.
Today, it'll be exactly 30 years since "Star Wars" blasted away all expectations after opening in just 32 movie theaters on May 25, 1977.
It's remarkable to note how, in the days before universe-filling marketing campaigns and studio tracking reports, no one, not even writer-director George Lucas, was prepared for the lines that snaked around theaters showing "Star Wars."
Audiences cheered from the opening blasts of John Williams' score to the closing credits, pausing only to boo Darth Vader.
Facing high demand for tie-in toys that had yet to be manufactured, department stores were forced to issue IOUs.
In the late 1970s in America, the movie "appealed to people at a time (when) things maybe weren't going great," says Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in six movies and several TV specials. "People wanted something to make them feel good.
"And boy, did it take them out of their environment!"
Or as Rick McCallum, producer of the recent prequel trilogy, says: "It was a single moment in time that's not likely to be repeated."
The movie that 20th Century Fox nearly abandoned in midproduction ended up earning $460 million at the box office in the United States alone, boosted by the release of a special edition in 1997.
The film is the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, behind "Titanic."
There is no competition, however, in the world of toys and other tie-ins. The "Star Wars" franchise has raked in $13.5 billion in merchandising alone since 1977, according to Lucasfilm.
"There's no question that was the film that made the entire movie industry rethink its attitude toward summer movies, toward juvenile movies for big kids, science fiction, special effects and, of course, merchandising," says film historian Leonard Maltin.
This weekend, people who want to praise the Force can celebrate several ways:
l Now in bookstores is J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars," a mammoth tome so packed with photos and facts, a wookiee could get a hernia trying to lift it.
The $75 book, surprisingly, is a first for "Star Wars."
But the author recently told the New Daily News that he stumbled across four boxes of transcripts in the Lucasfilm library archives from interviews that took place between 1975 and 1978, conducted by the film's original head of marketing.
The background they provided formed the basis of the book, which is chock-full of anecdotes, behind-the-scenes photos and early storyboard sketches (Darth Vader, it seems, once looked more like a vacuum cleaner).
* Think the creature cantina at Mos Eisley spaceport was filled with a motley bunch?
Watch "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed," a new two-hour documentary airing Monday on the Discovery Channel, and see Newt Gingrich, Dan Rather and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi comment alongside "Lord of the Rings" filmmaker Peter Jackson. Far out.
* To coincide with the anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service is issuing 15 "Star Wars" stamps.
But Lucasfilm isn't stuck in the past: There are two TV series in the works, animated and live-action, with the latter reportedly filling in the blanks of what some characters were doing for the 20 years between Episodes III and IV.
McCallum says the plan is to get them on the air in 2009.
"'Star Wars' was revolutionary, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted this long," says Peter Mayhew, the 7-foot-3 English actor who played Chewbacca. "So I'll talk to you again in another 30 years."
Copyright © 2007
The News & Record
and Landmark Communications, Inc.
Star Wars: How The World Changed
Star Wars: How The World Changed
Posted By:Ted Kemp
Topics:Technology | Media | Movies & Film Studios
Sectors:Technology | Media
Companies:News Corporation
By Ted Kemp News Editor | 21 May 2007 | 12:42 PM ET
Font size:
“Star Wars,” the fantasy space epic that premiered 30 years ago this week, is often portrayed as the quintessential, even archetypal blockbuster—the flick that forever changed how the film industry writes, makes and markets movies. But things aren’t quite that simple.
The company that made the film, 20th Century Fox was a publicly traded—but still independent—studio on May 25, 1977, the day Star Wars debuted in 32 U.S. theaters. The company had never surpassed $37 million in annual earnings since its formation in 1935 through the merger of Darryl Zanuck’s Twentieth Century Pictures and William Fox’s Fox Film Corp.
In 1977, those profit numbers were about to change. Gary Arnold, a “Washington Post” staff writer who wrote an original review of the movie, told the story of two friends who “placed orders with their brokers (for 20th Century Fox stock) minutes after seeing the film.”
Box Office Gold
“Star Wars” raked in $6.8 million during its first weekend of wide release. Within months it would do something no movie—including “Jaws,” released the year before—had ever done: It surpassed the $300-million revenue mark. “Star Wars” topped out at $798 million in worldwide revenue. Earnings at 20th Century Fox more than doubled their best-ever mark in 1977, as did the company’s stock price.
Still, says Agatino Balio, a former professor of film at the University of Wisconsin who has written several books on movie industry history, not one of the underlying business strategies that created the “Star Wars” phenomenon was really all that novel.
“As a genre, and as a marketing strategy for a motion picture company, there wasn’t anything new about 'Star Wars' as a concept,” Balio says.
"Star Wars" would go on to be serialized, generating three decades of revenue through the release of sequels and prequels. But Balio points out that United Artists had pioneered the serial concept years before with the James Bond films. And “The Godfather” and “Jaws” had established themselves as “event” films with sweeping cultural impact while "Star Wars" was still an amorphous idea knocking around in George Lucas’ head. Star Wars can’t even claim the honor of being the first mega-blockbuster: After taking inflation into account, "Gone With The Wind" still ranks as the highest grossing movie of all time.
Nothing To Write Home About
As for depth of plot line , "Star Wars" certainly didn't open new territory. "The story of 'Star Wars' could be written on the head of a pin and still leave room for the Bible," said critic Vincent Canby of the New York Times.
All those things said, “Star Wars” did, indeed, break new ground. Even though it came along after "2001: A Space Odyssey," Lucas’ firm Industrial Light & Magic (which he founded only because 20th Century Fox had recently scrapped its special effects department) saw to it that “Star Wars” took effects—video, audio, robotic, miniature modeling and otherwise—to extremes previously unimagined.
Related Stories
* Jim Goldman: The Empire's Real Legacy
* Slideshow: Behind The Scenes At ILM
* StarWars.com
And for pure mythic originality, “Star Wars” represented something unprecedented: Arnold of the Post and Vincent Canby of “The New York Times” struggled to categorize the film, saying alternately in their first reviews that “Star Wars” evoked everything from Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, classic westerns, pirate melodramas and aerial combat films, to samurai epics, “Ivanhoe,” the Legend of King Arthur, and the Gospel According to St. Matthew.
Given that “Star Wars” was made for $11 million, its return on investment certainly surpassed anything before it and probably anything since. "Star Wars" accomplished that without the benefit of "saturation booking"—the relatively new industry practice of opening films in thousands of theaters on the same day. Not bad for a movie whose release 20th Century Fox execs moved to before Memorial Day because they were certain it wouldn’t be able to compete with that summer’s "Smokey and the Bandit."
Blockbuster Business Model
Today, a single film can cost $200 million to produce, and a hoped-for blockbuster may cost another $100 million to market, says Gordon Hodge, media analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners. In short, since the days of "Star Wars," the movie business has become a game of very big bets.
“When you think about the cost of just one film, you could even start a significant company with that kind of money,” Hodge says.
But consumer demand for the blockbuster remains. So, therefore, does studios’ incentive to turn out potential mega-hits. With the investment stakes higher than they've ever been before, motion picture companies have begun turning to financial devices that weren't available in 1977.
Today's movies have the benefit of revenue from DVD sales, which Hodge says often match box office sales. Because DVDs don’t require a huge marketing budget, they present less risk to the studios.
Movie companies have also begun mitigating risk by taking on banks and financial services firms as initial investment partners. Several banks and even hedge funds have developed formulas that factor actors, genres and other elements into account to gauge a film's chance of success. If they like the way the numbers come out, they get on board with the studio. Hodge cites Merrill Lynch's backing of Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" and "Hulk II," both slated for release in 2008.
Marvel Studios, which has borrowed more than one page from the "Star Wars" playbook, has proven itself a winner with its "SpiderMan" films. And it takes full advantage of the new, emerging—and unprecedented—financial tools at the disposal of today's film companies.
Taken in that context, "Star Wars" didn't so much herald the era of modern movie making, as it became the symbol—albeit a very successful one—of an age of filmmaking whose time has already passed by.
Posted By:Ted Kemp
Topics:Technology | Media | Movies & Film Studios
Sectors:Technology | Media
Companies:News Corporation
By Ted Kemp News Editor | 21 May 2007 | 12:42 PM ET
Font size:
“Star Wars,” the fantasy space epic that premiered 30 years ago this week, is often portrayed as the quintessential, even archetypal blockbuster—the flick that forever changed how the film industry writes, makes and markets movies. But things aren’t quite that simple.
The company that made the film, 20th Century Fox was a publicly traded—but still independent—studio on May 25, 1977, the day Star Wars debuted in 32 U.S. theaters. The company had never surpassed $37 million in annual earnings since its formation in 1935 through the merger of Darryl Zanuck’s Twentieth Century Pictures and William Fox’s Fox Film Corp.
In 1977, those profit numbers were about to change. Gary Arnold, a “Washington Post” staff writer who wrote an original review of the movie, told the story of two friends who “placed orders with their brokers (for 20th Century Fox stock) minutes after seeing the film.”
Box Office Gold
“Star Wars” raked in $6.8 million during its first weekend of wide release. Within months it would do something no movie—including “Jaws,” released the year before—had ever done: It surpassed the $300-million revenue mark. “Star Wars” topped out at $798 million in worldwide revenue. Earnings at 20th Century Fox more than doubled their best-ever mark in 1977, as did the company’s stock price.
Still, says Agatino Balio, a former professor of film at the University of Wisconsin who has written several books on movie industry history, not one of the underlying business strategies that created the “Star Wars” phenomenon was really all that novel.
“As a genre, and as a marketing strategy for a motion picture company, there wasn’t anything new about 'Star Wars' as a concept,” Balio says.
"Star Wars" would go on to be serialized, generating three decades of revenue through the release of sequels and prequels. But Balio points out that United Artists had pioneered the serial concept years before with the James Bond films. And “The Godfather” and “Jaws” had established themselves as “event” films with sweeping cultural impact while "Star Wars" was still an amorphous idea knocking around in George Lucas’ head. Star Wars can’t even claim the honor of being the first mega-blockbuster: After taking inflation into account, "Gone With The Wind" still ranks as the highest grossing movie of all time.
Nothing To Write Home About
As for depth of plot line , "Star Wars" certainly didn't open new territory. "The story of 'Star Wars' could be written on the head of a pin and still leave room for the Bible," said critic Vincent Canby of the New York Times.
All those things said, “Star Wars” did, indeed, break new ground. Even though it came along after "2001: A Space Odyssey," Lucas’ firm Industrial Light & Magic (which he founded only because 20th Century Fox had recently scrapped its special effects department) saw to it that “Star Wars” took effects—video, audio, robotic, miniature modeling and otherwise—to extremes previously unimagined.
Related Stories
* Jim Goldman: The Empire's Real Legacy
* Slideshow: Behind The Scenes At ILM
* StarWars.com
And for pure mythic originality, “Star Wars” represented something unprecedented: Arnold of the Post and Vincent Canby of “The New York Times” struggled to categorize the film, saying alternately in their first reviews that “Star Wars” evoked everything from Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, classic westerns, pirate melodramas and aerial combat films, to samurai epics, “Ivanhoe,” the Legend of King Arthur, and the Gospel According to St. Matthew.
Given that “Star Wars” was made for $11 million, its return on investment certainly surpassed anything before it and probably anything since. "Star Wars" accomplished that without the benefit of "saturation booking"—the relatively new industry practice of opening films in thousands of theaters on the same day. Not bad for a movie whose release 20th Century Fox execs moved to before Memorial Day because they were certain it wouldn’t be able to compete with that summer’s "Smokey and the Bandit."
Blockbuster Business Model
Today, a single film can cost $200 million to produce, and a hoped-for blockbuster may cost another $100 million to market, says Gordon Hodge, media analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners. In short, since the days of "Star Wars," the movie business has become a game of very big bets.
“When you think about the cost of just one film, you could even start a significant company with that kind of money,” Hodge says.
But consumer demand for the blockbuster remains. So, therefore, does studios’ incentive to turn out potential mega-hits. With the investment stakes higher than they've ever been before, motion picture companies have begun turning to financial devices that weren't available in 1977.
Today's movies have the benefit of revenue from DVD sales, which Hodge says often match box office sales. Because DVDs don’t require a huge marketing budget, they present less risk to the studios.
Movie companies have also begun mitigating risk by taking on banks and financial services firms as initial investment partners. Several banks and even hedge funds have developed formulas that factor actors, genres and other elements into account to gauge a film's chance of success. If they like the way the numbers come out, they get on board with the studio. Hodge cites Merrill Lynch's backing of Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" and "Hulk II," both slated for release in 2008.
Marvel Studios, which has borrowed more than one page from the "Star Wars" playbook, has proven itself a winner with its "SpiderMan" films. And it takes full advantage of the new, emerging—and unprecedented—financial tools at the disposal of today's film companies.
Taken in that context, "Star Wars" didn't so much herald the era of modern movie making, as it became the symbol—albeit a very successful one—of an age of filmmaking whose time has already passed by.
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