I don’t
think that there is anyone in the civilized word that don’t know these
words. That’s how in 1977 began the
biggest since-fiction story of all times.
George
Lucas started his story untypically from episode 4 “A New Hope” .
The next
was “The Empire Strikes Back” In 1980.
The last part - episode 6 „Return of The Jedi” had its
premiere in 1983.
George Lucas came back with episode 1 “The
Phantom Menace” in 1999. The first new episode was a great disappointment,
criticized by fans of the old episodes. Nevertheless the film was a financial
success.
The next was “Attack of the Clones” in 2002.
The last move issued so far was “Revenge
of the Sith” in 2005.
http://turntherightcorner.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/star-wars-revenge-of-the-sith-poster.jpg?w=560
The film turned to be a tremendous success. Millions
of fans all around the world went crazy about the story of Luke Skywalker and
Rebel Alliance battling The Empire in a galaxy far, far away. And here my
question arises? Why? Star wars wasn’t the first science fiction movie ever made.
The story presented in that series wasn’t very original. A simple battle between good
and evil repeated countless times in almost all Hollywood movies. So why, why
people all around the world just loved Star Wars. What made people wait for
countless hours in very, very long lines to buy tickets for the next episode of
Star Wars. And they surely bought a lot of them. Star Wars was a commercial
success on a scale never seen in Hollywood history. Till our times only the Harry Potter series
and James Bond series (but it contains over 20 movies so I think that it’s
hardly comparable) earned more money as a film series.
Star wars made George Lucas one of the
richest film directors in history. The series ( including the first 3 episodes
filmed later) brought tremendous income for the producers ( including George
Lucas himself of course). Only from the tickets the income was quite impressive
(the numbers below represent the value without taking the inflation into
account):
- The Phantom Menace - 924 mln $
- Revenge of the Sith - 848 mln $
- A New Hope - 775 mln $
- Attack of the Clones - 649 mln $
- The Empire Strikes Back - 538 mln $
- Return of The Jedi - 475 mln $
But that’s
not all. Star Wars became a culture icon, the brand that the companies like
Lucas Film and Lucas Arts sold out for over 40 years with quite nice income
too:
- 12 bilion $ toys
- 3,755 bilion $ DVDs
- 2,900 bilion $ video games
- 1,820 bilion $ books
- 1,304 bilion $ others
That brings
us to total over 27 billion USD income.
Nowadays
you can by almost anything based on the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, books,
toys ,games, clothes anything you can imagine. There are countless references
in other films, music, TV shows. Nowadays The Wald Disney Company bought the
commercial rights from Lucas Film and announced that in 2015 we can expect next
7th episode of Star Wars.
Star wars
has influenced people all around the world in many different ways. Even in higher mental form. The Jedi Church
is an official religion in many countries. Redently in the UK it has come out that it is the 7th most popular religion in the UK (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9737886/Jedi-religion-most-popular-alternative-faith.html)
Even if some of you never saw Star Wars I’m
almost certain that somewhere you have heard its main music theme. Epic film
music was composed by John Williams. It has become the most recognizable move
themes of all times.
The Main Theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAUVaBFtjfc
The Imperial March
The Phantom Menace –“The Duel of Fates”
Entire Star Wars music performed regularly by symphonic orchestras all around the
world.
So my
question stands. What do you think is the source of the tremendous success.
Maybe you are a Star Wars fan yourself?
I’m definitely a Star Wars fan. I watch the
movie countless times, and to be honest I can’t answer to those questions
myself. There is something in that movies that makes them timeless but I can’t
explain what is it exactly.
May the
Force be with us all.
Comments
It’s true about the Force, nowadays many people wish have this mysterious energy for a moment at least (Jedi or Sith abilities).
About music? It’s epic. Music composed by John William is incredible and brilliant show us spirit of entire saga and with this music we could travel to galaxy far far away.
Personally, I have watched many movies of this kind, but no one spoken to me like Star Wars saga, and until today I’m still fan of this universe.
I am sure that the movies present a very high technical standard, each for its time. So that might be a big plus: good visual and audio effects. I mean, there are many movies that had a big success solely for their technical aspects.
It might be, that at the time when Star Wars was played for the first time science - fiction stuff was popular. I mean, Star Trek is not much older than Star Wars. Maybe that was a start off for the series, that later on grew and became a hit for years to come.
Anyways, I don't like Star Wars and most of the similar shows there are and it isn't really my favorite topic.
I think it's something similar to Tolkien - it is the whole world, not only a movie. There are so many details you can see - like shuttles, ships, war machines. The plot includes some elements which viewer looks for: love, knights, cool light sabres. We should also remember that at the time when the first movie was released its CGI was very innovative comparing to other movies and Star Wars for long time was (or even still is) a synonym to 'sci-fi' .
I'm not realy a fan of the Star Wars, it is not like, I didn't enjoy watching it, but for me thease movies were just okay, nothing realy special. I don't understand the phenomen of this particular "universe", but I partly agree with Sylwia, that the marketing and history of this is worth to mention and could be the reason.
I am pretty sure that the great role played those special effects and cool looking... everything, but personally I think that story and world was main part of success.