'Star Wars' - Case Study

A Critical Study on 'Star Wars'

Name of Film: Star Wars (later titled 'Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope')
Director: George Lucas
Stars: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia Organa), Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) and Alec Guiness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) (stars chosen as those listed on the back of the DVD box set release)
Date Released: May 25th, 1977 (U.S.A.)

Marketing and Merchandise:

Marketing:

When George Lucas prepared his initial 14-page story treatment for the space opera, all of the major studios rejected it as they saw it as science fiction which was difficult to market at the time. Eventually Lucas found a sympathetic ear in the form of Alan Ladd Jr. - who at that point was the new head of 20th Century Fox - who had been impressed by Lucas's efforts on 'American Graffiti', thus after extensive convincing, gave Star Wars the green light with a budget of $8,000,000.


During a market test, the studio tried to change the movie's name as the title 'Star Wars' caused negative results in the testing and thus a competition was held during shooting for cast and crew members to think of a new title, but none of them ever stuck. The main cause of the negative feedback for the movies name was because it contained the word 'Wars' which holds strong negative connotations especially during the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War.

The initial research done by 20th Century Fox using the title and brief synopsis showed that only males under 25 were interested in seeing the film, thus causing Fox to market the film to try and attract older and female viewers by pushing the images of people (in particular Princess Leia) into the limelight and referring to the movie as more 'mythical' than 'science fiction'.

Charles Lippincott was hired as the marketing director for Star Wars, however due 20th Century Fox giving minimal support for marketing outside licensing t-shirts and posters, Lippincott had to look elsewhere. As a fan of science fiction himself, he managed to secure deals with Marvel Comics for a comic book adaption and with Del Ray Books for novelization and he used his own contacts to promote the film at the San Diego ComicCon and elsewhere within the Science Fiction Fandom.

Due to the movies release date being pushed back to the summer of 1977 instead of the Christmas of 1976, Fox  began to worry that Star Wars would be beaten by other summer films, including 'Smokey and the Bandit'. This worry made Fox move the release date to the Wednesday before Memorial Day yet due to less than 40 theaters ordering the film to be shown, Fox demanded that theatres order Star Wars if they wanted an eagerly awaited film based on the best selling novel 'The Other Side of Midnight'.

Merchandise:

For several months after the film's debut, there was very little merchandise available, with only Kenner Products accepting Lippincott's licensing offers. To deal with the sudden demand for Star Wars toys, they used what is known as an "empty box campaign", where vouchers in the "Star Wars Early Bird Certificate Package" could be traded in for four Star Wars action figures between February and June of 1978.

Despite the film itself being set back to be released in 1977, the novelisation of the film was published at it's initially planned release date in December of 1976 - a whole six months before the film itself was released, but it also included scenes that were cut from the final edit of the film. Whilst the credited author was George Lucas, it was also ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, who later went on to write the first Expanded Universe novel (Splinter of the Mind's Eye).


Marvel Comics also adapted the film as the first few issues of its licensed Star Wars comic book, unlike the novel adoption, the first issue was released after the films debut, in July 1977, yet it also contained scenes that didn't make it to the final cut of the movie. The comic series was so successful that (according to Jim Shooter) it '… single-handedly saved Marvel' during 1977 and 1978.

In 1979, Lucasfilm gave the film a 24-page children's book-and-record adaption (narrated by Roscoe Lee Brown) where each page contained a cropped screenshot of a key section from the film and a condensed version of the story.

In 1981, a radio drama adaption of the film was produced for and broadcasted on the American National Public Radio network. Written by Brian Daley and directed by John Madden, the adaption received cooperation from George Lucas who gave them the rights to use the films original soundtrack, whilst Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) voiced their original characters. Once again, this adaption contained more scenes removed from the final cut - including Darth Vader's interrogation of Princess Leia, and a skyhopper race.

Initial and Later Success:

Releases:

Star Wars debuted on Wednesday the 25th of May, 1977 in less than 32 theatres, with only 8 more showing it on the following two days. Despite few theatres showing the film, it instantly broke box office records and essentially becoming one of the first ever blockbuster films, causing Fox to increase their plans to broaden it's release.

The film was a huge success for the studio, causing 20th Century Fox's stock price to doubled to a record high within just three weeks of it's release. Before then, Fox's greatest annual profits were $37,000,000, but in 1977, the company easily broke that record by passing a profit of $79,000,000. Despite the film's cultural neutrality allowing it to receive international success, Ladd was anxious at the premiere in Japan as after the film was over the audience was completely silent, however he was soon informed by local connections that silence was in fact the greatest honour a film could receive in Japan.

The subtitles of 'Episode IV: A New Hope' were added starting with the film's re-release on April 10th, 1981. The film was also re-released theatrically in 1997 with additional scenes and enhanced special effects (this version was later further subtitled as the 'Special Edition'). This 'Special Edition' was brought about when Lucas saw that technology had caught up to his original version of Star Wars after the work of ILM used computer-generated effects for Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993), and thus Star Wars was digitally remastered and re-released to movie theatres alongside The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi under the campaign title 'Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition'.

The Special Edition consisted of more visual shots and scenes that were previously unachievable due to a mix of technological, time and budgeting restraints - one such scene being Han Solo meeting Jabba the Hut, however some of the changes made caused controversy among fans - in particular when Han Solo is confronted by a bounty hunter called Greedo, Greedo is made to shoot first when originally it had been Han Solo to shoot first - this change also led to t-shirts being made with the phrase "Hans Shot First" on them.

Box Office:

Even today, Star Wars is one of the most financially successful films of all time, having earned over $1.5 million through it's opening weekend, building up to $7 million  as it entered wide release and by the end of it's initial theatrical run it had earned over $220 million in the U.S.A. and Canada alone, and by the end of the following year, it had earned $410 million worldwide. After the re-releases in the following years, it's overall earnings in the U.S.A. and Canada to $323 million, and extended it's global earnings to $530 million, and it kept it's position as highest-grossing film of all time until 1983, where E.T. the Extra-Terrestial broke the record.

After the release of the Special Edition in 1997, Star Wars once again reclaimed the North American record for a brief period of time before losing it the following year to Titanic. Overall the film's earned $775, 398,007 worldwide, but after adjusting amounts due to inflation, it;s earned over $2.5 billion worldwide (as of 2011 prices and records), making it the most successful franchise film of all time, and according to the Guinness World Records, at the North American box office before inflation it ranks as the 3rd highest grossing film, while after inflation it ranks as the 2nd highest.

Accolades:

With it's cast and crew, Star Wars has won a total of 24 awards since it's release in 1977.
1977:

• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Film
• Saturn Award for Best Costume (John Mollo)
• Saturn Award for Best Make-up (Stuart Freeborn)
• Saturn Award for Best Music (John Williams)
• Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
• Saturn Award for Best Special Effects (John Dykstra)
• Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor (Alec Guinness)
• Saturn Award for Best Writing (George Lucas)

1978:

• Academy Award for Best Costume Design (John Mollo)
• Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas and Richard Chew)
• Academy Award for Best Original Music Score (John Williams)
• Academy Award for Best Production Design (Roger Christian, Norman Reynolds, John Barry and Leslie Dilley)
• Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing (Don MacDougall, Derek Ball, Bob Minkler and Ray West)
• Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (John Dykstra, John Stears, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune and Rober Blalack)
• Special Achievement Academy Award (Ben Burtt)
• BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (John Williams)
• BAFTA Award for Best Sound (Sam Shaw, Robert R. Rutledge, Gordon Davidson, Gene Corso, Derek Ball, Don MacDougall, Bob Minkler, Ray West, Michael Minkler, Les Fresholtz, Richard Portman and Ben Burtt)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (John Williams)
• Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (George Lucas)
• Nebula Award for Best Script (George Lucas)
• People's Choice Award for Favourite Movie 
• Saturn Award for Best Director (George Lucas)
• Saturn Award for Best Music (John Williams)

2011:

• Satellite Award for Best DVD Extra