American popular culture has always been a market for sales. Everything that is and has made pop culture what it is in America has been built through commercialization. The ability to sell the main product and then the countless other revenue items that go with that product define American culture. Today in the United States a person would be hard-pressed to fined a movie showing in theaters that does not have a soundtrack out, t-shirt even action figures that go along with it. So where did this idea of marketing out come from? Simple. Star Wars. Thanks to the cultural influence of George Lucas’ Star Wars there is not a director in Hollywood that doesn’t look to cash in through other forms of movie sales. In late 1975 George Lucas began …show more content…
At the time of the 1977 release, Star Wars became a new and innovative film. Seabrook is right when he said that the film was successful because of timing. Lucas had captured something new and seemingly realistic. But he himself never could have imagined the success he endured. Seabrook hints that Lucas, who once set out to make his independence, was now becoming his own powerful self. The thing he had set out for in writing Star Wars was to have freedom to write. Freedom from the big guns of Hollywood. Now Lucas himself had become one of those big guns that controlled all the money. Seabrook describes Lucas as ' 'the first of the great content robber barons ' '. He has built up his fortune and is completely content with Hollywood’s failure. In concluding, Star Wars might be the pinnacle of the film industry. It gave us our first look at the film industries use of commercialization. Never before had a movie been so big that it was selling millions of dollars a year on things such as pencils and stickers with the Star Wars name on it. It showed what a movie is capable of and how much advertising affect can have on the general public. However through its success on the big screen Star Wars according to Seabrook is just another Hollywood get rich quick scheme. George Lucas sits on an empire worth 20.1 billion dollars (Wastler) and controls a great deal of the Hollywood market. However the concern for the small directors, as he too was once, is not
Given our analysis of the motion picture industry, we recommend that Arundel carefully select the major film studios from which they intend to purchase sequel rights. The net present value of hypothetical sequels taken from the available previous years shows not only that the industry is highly volatile, but also that certain production studios are more volatile than others in terms of their recent performance. In addition, some studios are consistently less profitable than others. (See "NPV for Each Production Company" chart in appendix) Since the success of film studios are relatively stable in the short term (see "Rental Shares of Major Film Distributors" table and graph) Because of this stability, it is possible for Arundel to approach more profitable studios with their offer to purchase sequel rights. Out of all the major film studios, only MCA-Universal, Warner Bros., and The Walt Disney Company generate a positive net present value on a per-film basis. However, according to casual inquiries, it is unlikely that any movie studio would enter negotiations with Arundel on a per film price that is less than 1 million. Instead, the film studios seem to
"Star Wars" was arguably the first in a new breed of high concept, high budget sci-fi action films. It was directed by George Lucas and originally released in only a few cinemas in 1977. However, the buzz around the film grew, and it is now one of the highest grossing films of all time, and along with its sequels, prequels and re-mastered re-releases, has a large cult following. I feel this is because of Lucas` ability to engage the audience through careful use of sound and camera technique;
The films he created allowed the new generation of movie goers to have their own movie, that everyone could relate too. Tying into the backbone of the American New Wave movement which was the realism within the films. The editing use within Star Wars was uncommon for films to incorporate the use of computers models, the use of the computer aided effects started to effect other films in the making, allowing them to add more to the story and attract the new age of the audience. Also lets take into account that Lucas was not only a one film director, he also had created the Indiana Jones series, another blockbuster film. Some on the trademarks used by Lucas in Star Wars and Indiana Jones are still used today within other films, some examples of Lucas’s trademarks are his use of battle scenes by a large pit, visual effects, and also the use of soft-edge wipes as transitions. In addition, everything Lucas was doing was to get the new generation of movie attenders to come and see the new film in the theaters. As a parallel too today, movies are coming out every week, each one different from the other, but if you look closely at each of the movies the use of visual effects within the movies have stayed the same, from having half of New York always destroyed or from having more
George Lucas was a very credible director because he was influenced by the small town he grew up in Modesto. According to The Secret History of Star Wars, “Lucas’ father felt that George never quite measured up to his ideals of what a good son should be.” (Kiminski 9) Lucas seems to be comparing himself to the main character in Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker. Both Luke and Lucas grew up in small towns, didn’t have a strong relationship with their father (or in Luke’s case, didn’t know their father), and they both thought they would never leave the small town they resided in.
Some films may go bankrupt by spending all their budget on publicity, but the franchise was smarter than that. They know that no amount of advertisements in the world could make up for a film with poor content. Combined with the fact that the franchise has had a lot of experience in producing the Star Wars films, it is not hard to see why the films, especially the most recent, are so psychologically appealing. If publicity was never present in the production of the films, they would have never gotten any exposure. Without exposure, they would not have had the revenue to merchandise. And without merchandising the films, you would have never seen that light saber or picture of Yoda for the first time, because it would not have existed. The movies may be psychologically pleasing to someone because they are enjoyable to watch, but the franchise itself has used publicizing and merchandizing to make itself psychologically appealing outside of the films. Through appealing to audiences, putting itself in the spotlight with technology, appealing to children in the form of toys, and inspiring young women to push past the non feminist views of society, the Star Wars franchise has positioned itself in a way so that people relate to it in their own unique
George Lucas is one of the most impressive filmmakers in the world. With a lot of education and background in film has he grown to change the movie industry to something incredible. Lucas was a young boy, born 1944, that was interested in cars and racing, but his interests did soon change into filmmaking after he had been filming the cars that Lucas and his friends would use to race. George Lucas passion for developing picture and sound changed the film industry into something unimaginable.
A long time ago--in a galaxy not so far away-- a boy with a love of space operas and race cars would grow into a man who would create a movie empire and change the world of cinema for years to come. George Walton Lucas Jr. was born on May 14, 1944, in Modesto, California- a small farming town east of San Francisco (Barson). He attended Thomas Downey High School and later attended Modesto Junior College to study social sciences. While he was there, Lucas took an interest in photography and film and, subsequently, decided he wanted to go to art school. Then, he enrolled in the University of Southern California film school and produced eight student films with his new friend Francis Ford Coppola (“George Lucas Biography”). After many short film
People saw Luke Skywalker first in “Star Wars: A New Hope” as a complaining, adolescent farmboy. In the first movie, fans found him irritating to be heard. Stuart Carapola, writer and owner of www.StarWarsWavelength.com, says in his discussion blog reply, “Yes, when we first met Luke, he was an immature, impulsive, and headstrong child who thought he knew everything and nearly got himself killed because he blew off Yoda and Obi-Wan’s warning and went looking for Vader.” As he would complain about “not getting what he wants” or “mocking someone’s words”. Near the end of the movie, Luke Skywalker astonishingly knew how to fly an X-wing(spaceship), killed off many enemy TIE fighters, and destroyed the Death Star. It is quite unusual for someone
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” This was the beginning of the first film of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time. Not only did the films eventually lead to a gross of over $27 billion between the box office, DVDs, toys, video games, etc, but it also influenced America and the rest of the world. (Forbes)
When George Lucas first pitched the idea of Star Wars, a space-western, to movie executives back in the 1970’s; he probably never imagined it to be the cultural phenomenon that it turned out to be. The original Star Wars trilogy (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi), earned more two billion dollars, after adjusted for inflation in North America (IMDB). Then sixteen years later the next three Star Wars movies were released (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith), and earned more than 1.5 billion dollars at the box office in North America, adjusted for inflation (IMDB). Not only were the movies box office hits, the movies were also critically acclaimed. Episode VI was nominated for 11 Oscars: including Best Picture, and also won seven Oscars, including a special achievement award (The Academy Awards). The prequels were also nominated for a total of five Academy Awards (The Academy Awards). With all of that aside Star Wars is more than all of that, the franchise has influenced movies and how audiences get involved with movies.
The Empire Strikes Back - 1980[In a revolutionary approach to Hollywood film-making and merchandising, Lucas wisely accepted only $175,000 as his writer's/director's
In fact, the force is established in the films as a symbolism of faith, Lucas has hoped that the force has awoken the curiosity to awaken spiritually in younger people. Thinking of religious stories and how they can tie into the movies; there was a story where evil tried to get good on their side, just like how Darth Vardar tried to get Luke to join the dark side. Overall, there are numerous elements that shows that Star Wars goes beyond myths and connect to life today. Star Wars main concept is transformation and transition, and you see that in Luke’s journey. Like Luke, people have a life journey that they have to take as well between the ages of 18 to 20.
All this advertising costs the studio millions of dollars to ensure that the film does well in the box
Disney spent lots of money on advertising on that movie. There were many ads on TV, and merchandise was everywhere. Now, they’re even making a whole section in Disney World dedicated to Star Wars. This is all going to attract a way larger audience. Of course, advertisements and merchandise isn’t cheap, but but the profit you’re going to make is probably going to be higher.
It's kinda funny, I've literally never seen any of the Star Wars movies. A lot of my friends rant and rave about it, and here I am completely oblivious to what they are so intrigued by. I like how you pointed out the advertisement aspect of the movie industry. A decent percentage of sales is actual merchandise. Although I've never seen the series, I still own a star wars coffee mug. The people in charge of marketing were able to appeal to a broader