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The Star Wars Money Machine
Darth Cola writes " The Star Wars franchise has made George Lucas plenty rich. But his fortune is only a peice of a much bigger financial pie, one which Forbes.com estimates at just shy of $20 billion. They have a rundown of the Star Wars financial empire, and a market by market breakdown of where the money comes from." From the article: "It all started with a story treatment, handwritten in pencil on a few sheets of lined yellow legal paper. That's all that existed of the multibillion-dollar financial empire, now known as the Star Wars universe, when filmmaker George Lucas sat down in 1974 to write what, within three years, would be the biggest meteor to hit Hollywood since there's been a Hollywood."
He sat down to write Star Wars? I thought he just made it up as he went along...
A peIce? What kind of ice is pe?
Previous generations may have objected to commercialism but we grew up on. I'd be surprised if every aspect of Star Wars didn't get commercialized. Besides the Yoda/Pepsi ads are funny.
In the end he's now got the big studio and calling the shots. It's as though he joined the dark side to defeat the dark side.
The Star Wars franchise has made George Lucas plenty rich
Is that a direct quote from Jar-Jar?
"Sure there's porn and piracy on the Web but there's probably a downside too."
The article says lucasarts has a plethora of new star wars releases. They only have 1 Revenge of the Sith game for PS2 & Xbox.
Slashdot needs to make an Ads category and stuff all of these stupid trailer/movie promos there so they are easier to ignore. Slashvertizement 23354356 for Star Wars has gotten stale. Only 34245234 more such stories to go until the mediocre movie with neat visuals actually comes out in theaters...
Anakin becomes Darth Vader ... haha ... I just ruined the movie for a billion people!
Star Wars Episode 0, the Quest for More Money.
So he's rich. I'm not. Nothing's changed.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Over the course of 28 years, those films and their modern counterparts, The Phantom Menace from 1999 and Attack of the Clones from 2002, have grossed $5.67 billion globally when adjusted for inflation. Assuming an average ticket price of $6.25, that would buy more than 907 million tickets to Revenge of the Sith--enough for every person in the Western Hemisphere, with the entire population of Poland included twice.
Don't forget Poland!
- sm
Considering how rich George Lucas is, it's interesting to keep hearing him talk about his future projects, how he wants to make smaller movies etc.
... don't get me wrong, I like [some of] his movies and all, but I can't help but suspect that despite all his success, Lucas is just sort of a sad, isolated, lonely, messed-up old fucker.
"I've earned the right to just make things that I find provocative in my own way," he's quoted as saying. "I've earned the right to fail, which means making what I think are really great movies that no one wants to see."
I always wonder what the hell that means? Earned the right to fail? Like he wasn't allowed to fail before? Exactly how much money was he supposed to make before he could buy his way into the club of mere mortals who are allowed to fail? Kind of a strange way to approach a creative ambition, I think. What mental process must go on in Lucas's head that he has to actually give himself permission to be creative, and justify it by pointing to his past commercial successes?
In general, I'd love to see a psychological profile of George Lucas sometime. Especially considering some of the truly bizarre moral commandments he's put into his recent films (missing your mom is wrong, getting angry at things is bad and makes you a bad person, if you want to be a hero then relationships are forbidden, etc.)
Breakfast served all day!
does this mean my choice of M&M's does NOT determine my fate? That it was a cheap marketing ploy?
I thought I was a badass Sith because I chose the peanut M&Ms...but it's a lie....DAMN YOU LUCAS! DAMN YOUUUUUUUUU!!!
Monstar L
It all went south with RotJ, which was an unashamed attempt to sell as many action figures and toys as absolutely possible to kids. With PM, we saw large portions of the movie given over to selling a video game.
Star Wars nerds ruined Star Wars the same way that Trek nerds ruined Trek - by accepting any shit thrust upon them with the appropriate branding, the producers felt free to sacrifice quality in order to broaden appeal and merchandise the hell out of the product.
In both cases, we get bland crap that doesn't stand up well to the original. Greedy producers, stupid nerds... a fatal combination.
...to count Reagan's Star Wars defense program as part of the "Star Wars universe"?
To quote the relevant bit:
Also, there's no point just throwing comic characters at me as if I'm saying all comics are better than film, because I'm not. I'm just saying I can blatantly see Lucas' influences and I prefered New Gods to Star Wars. (New Gods had Darkseid and the Source, Star Wars has Darth Vader and the Force. Orion is revealed to be Darkseid's son; Luke is Vader's son. New Gods had a spiritual leader/father figure to Orion called Highfather; Star Wars has spiritual leader/father figure to Luke called Obi Wan Kenobi. New Gods:1971. Star Wars: 1977. George Lucas was a comics fan. Say no more).
Sound convincing enough to me.
Cheers,
Ian
CONSUME
eat shiat and bark at the moon
This is not the Story your looking for..
We don't need to see your replies.
George is still a regular Joe just like you..
Move along..
__________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
That one is kinda cute, but the one with Darth Vader was just sad.When I was younger, Darth Vader was a great "bad guy" who commanded respect from everyone. He never came across as undignified.
Now he is reduced to a shill for Pepsi, as a character that people laugh at. How sad is that?
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
one which Forbes.com estimates at just shy of $20 billion
Well.. it seems like someone is using the force wisely
Yoda selling Pepsi, Chewbacca on E!, Vader selling pizzas....
Did anyone think Lucas would have learned? Out of control and horrible... I'm hugging my tie-fighter from 1974 in the closet under a pile of socks. All ewoks must die.
Darth Vader Slurpie.
Turk: Let's play Steak. J.D.: What? Turk: Steak. The 1st person to finish their steak is the winner of Steak. -Scrubs
I guess someone didn't have an Ewok toothbrush.
Star Wars is the ultimate franchise because even as a film it's an amlagam of marketable genres.
The original trilogy alone features:With all of that thrown together... in space... there's a little something for every geek. And market after market after market that you can sell games, toys, lunch boxes, books, clothing, artwork, women's delicates and more to.
Assuming an average ticket price of $6.25, that would buy more than 907 million tickets to Revenge of the Sith--enough for every person in the Western Hemisphere, with the entire population of Poland included twice. Or enough tickets for every person in the U.S. to see it three times.
::Colz Grigor
The fact that this journalist doesn't realize that Poland is in the Eastern Hemisphere leads me to question the accuracy of anything they wrote.
"I've earned the right to fail"
It reminds me of an engineer who said "I knew I was sucessful when I knew I could turn down clients."
I think the point is that he wants to make something that he is happy with and screw everyone else, at thats a pretty good goal to have. You don't wear your comfy pjs and sweats on the streets because of social pressure, not because you don't like the clothing.
Alot of art is peer reviewed. Your sucess or failure depends on what others say; teachers, critics, art dealers, customers. The social pressure is huge especially in a highly visible position he has.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Mad with power, that's what he is. Wrecking the greatest franchise in movie history and he still puts his kids in the movie and lets them pick the names. Gosh damnit, I can't get more mad about it. Lucas, if you can hear this, you suck.
Mel Brooks had it right. Star Wars started out as a cult classic, but has becoming an advertising gimmick like all of the other films out there. If you watch any Sci-Fi on TV or film you are just paying to watch a however long toy/ game commercial.
I'm a happy pessimist. I expect and prepare for the worst, when it doesn't happen I am pleasantly surprised.
Actually, there were quite a few more rereleases than that:
1977 - Star Wars original release
1978 - Star Wars rerelease
1979 - Star Wars rerelease
1980 - Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back original release
1981 - rereleases of both Star Wars (now retitled Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope) and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1982 - rereleases of both Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1983 - Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi original release
1985 - Star Wars - Episode Vi: Return of the Jedi rerelease
Note also that 1971's THX 1138 and 1973's American Graffiti were both rereleased in 1978 as well, More American Graffiti was released in 1979, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981 and rereleased in 1982, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in 1984 (the only year from 1977 to 1985 that no Star Wars film got at least a limited theatrical release).
Actually it all started with Boba Fett, who was marketed to kids as an action figure years before he appeared in a movie.
May the force be with you Luke and May the Money be with you Lucas
With the republicans in control, it now legal for George Lucas, or anyone else who is super-rich, to actually kick you. It was necessary as part of the war on human rights^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h terrorism.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
It all started with a story treatment, handwritten in pencil on a few sheets of lined yellow legal paper.
Which looked something like this, for those of you who haven't seen it...
Here's also a small discussion on how the script evolved.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
The similarities with New Gods is interesting, but Star Wars also grew out of Lucas' desire to remake Flash Gordon:
... he met with the people who owned it, and they didn't take him at all seriously. So he took the Flash Gordon trailers -- the diagonal titles that talk about the universe at that point [he means the opening story synopsis that seems to recede from the viewer as it scrolls up] -- and sort of combined it with a Stanley Kubrick '2001' world and created his own 'Flash Gordon.' " Lucas says the characters of "Star Wars" are not originals but "tributes."
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mstarwar.html
Here it is, straight from Lucas' first Hollywood boss and fellow USC graduate, Francis Ford Coppola: "George wanted to do Flash Gordon
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Jar Jar Binks?
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
From a talk I heard George Lucas give, the Special Editions were not originally meant for the theaters - they were cleaning them up for some other reason (video release? I forget that part) but then when they were done they had a test screening that went so well they thought they'd try a theatrical re-release. And that, obviously, went very well indeed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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Star Wars Lotto Tickets
Honest! Check your 7-11.
At least you have a chance of your Star Wars habit paying off for once.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
when filmmaker George Lucas sat down in 1974 to write what, within three years, would be the biggest meteor to hit Hollywood since there's been a Hollywood.
It's interesting that what he wrote in 1974 was actually very different than what ended up on screen in 1977. This is mostly irrelevant, but I found this detailed exposition of the history and evolution of the Star Wars script interesting and I thought Slashdotters might like it too:
http://hem.passagen.se/wookiee/developm/
Just as a tidbit, Luke Skywalker was originally a 60+ year old general!
Money destroys creativity.
Probably. But most people do their best work early on, because they have something to prove. Okay, so there are exceptions, like the Beatles etc., but if you think of a lot of artists, once they become middle aged they're not exactly making ground-breaking work like they were when they began. I think they just lose the drive and mellow out with age. Plus I guess having bazillions of dollars helps ease the pain.
Incidentally, Lars is a hopeless drummer.
for this is "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell.
The book was written in the 1940s.
"When Pepsi you drink, look like mine your teeth will!"
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
DODONNA: The Star Wars Money Machine is heavily shielded and carries a firepower greater than half the Hollywood fleet. It's defenses are designed around a direct large-scale assault on consumers everywhere. A small indie film should be able to penetrate the outer defense.
GOLD LEADER: Pardon me for asking, sir, but what good are indie films going to be against that?
DODONNA: Well, Hollywood doesn't consider a small indie film to be any threat, or they'd have a tighter defense. An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has demonstrated a weakness in the machine....The approach will not be easy. You are required to write better film and skim by on a budget of almost nothing. The target audience is a small group of people who, if enticed, will being a word of mouth campaign that will snowball until eclipses the Star Wars Money Machine and causes it to implode on itself.
A murmer of disbelief runs through the room.
Then, the movie turned into a multi-billion dollar blockbuster that played on American cinematic screens for over a year! In our cynicism about life, we quickly forget that the movie debuted in 1977 and played for 365 days into 1978. How many movies, today, can claim that fame?
Let's not jump up and day in joy when the critics claim that a movie is good. They could be wrong. They were wrong about Star Wars IV.
Why did Star War IV succeed? The main reason is that it appeared at a time when the nation was going through a great mental depression and malaise. There was stagflation and high unemployment. The cold war was in full swing. The Chinese were butchering Tibetans left and right.
Then came Star Wars and Ronald Reagan. Both gave hope to America. Both said that good shall triumph over evil. (Nonetheless, the Taiwanese government, which was praised by Ronald Reagan, committed the only successful assassination by a foreign government against an American citizen living in the USA. The victim was living in Daly City at the time.)
The answer is not technology. It does not solve America's problems. The answer is good values. The answer is in you. At the moment of truth, Skywalker turned off the guidance systems on his spacecraft and used his feelings to guide the photon torpedoes into the exhaust system of the death star, saving the rebel base.
"May the force [of good] be with you," says Yoda. "At the debut in about a week, see you! To cynicism, do not lose yourself. Rise again, America shall!" exclaims Yoda.
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Darth Tater.
Turk: Let's play Steak. J.D.: What? Turk: Steak. The 1st person to finish their steak is the winner of Steak. -Scrubs
So just go with Kreator - Enemy Of God!
Can someone confirm this?
If so, +1 informative
With PM, we saw large portions of the movie given over to selling a video game.
If you're talking about the pod race, and the subsequent release of "Episode I Racer"...bullshit. Not only does Lucas put high-speed "thrill rides" into his movies just on general principle (the Death Star in ANH, the speeder bikes in ROTJ, the street race in American Graffiti, the climatic car chase in THX 1138), he was also making a gratuitious homage to the chariot race in Ben-Hur. [1] [2]
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
I don't know what the fuss is about. It's not like Star Wars merchandising has gotten out of hand.
Is there a way to calculate how much revenue George Luca$ lost on Jar Jar vs what he might have earned if Binks was a POPULAR character?
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
907 million tickets to Revenge of the Sith--enough for every person in the Western Hemisphere, with the entire population of Poland included twice
Presuming a world population of 6.75 billion, does this mean that 5.65 billion people live in the Eastern hemisphere?
http://www.toysrgus.com/images-kenst/fett-hanger.h tml (yes, I sent in for it)
There are two types of nerds:
1. Those that watch Star Wars and admit it openly
2. Those that call those in 1 geeks and publicly call Lucas a money-lubber, and then secretly watch it in the dark shroud of the night and wish to be Lucas himself.
Which type of nerd are you??
Same thing applies to software, hardware, just about anything. Normal people are too willing to accept the shit quality. If more people start going to the companies and saying, "Look, this stuff is shit, make it better," market pressure will make them cave.
Goten Xiao
All the problems in the Star Wars universe (at least in episodes 1-3) are being blamed on the Trade Federation and the Banking Cartel. I don't really like being lectured on the evils of capitalism by a filthy rich jerk who has made a fortune by selling franchise rights to any asshole with a checkbook.
-- Will program for bandwidth
The early drafts don't support your theory. The original relationships between Annikin (as then spelled) and General Skywalker wandered all over the place from version to version.
If Lucas had been uncreatively imitating the New Gods storyline, one would expect his initial draft to be more like it, not less. These versions read more like The Foundation with Action Added.
In particular, "The Force" sounds a lot less like the Source in the original phrasing: "The force of others."
Bla bla bla bla. Who cares. Yeah he made something good, yeah money fucks people up. And this is why "the good die young": because at older age, they turn bad. Painting the Star Wars beginnings as a fairy tale would of worked if he died after making the first 3; instead the magic died. Like talking about a movie star that turns into a porn star.
But hey, as long as it's about $$$$$ (= success), right?
"I've never sought success in order to get fame and money;
it's the talent and the passion that count in success"
- Ingrid Bergman
Everytime someone mentions how George has "raped their childhood" by "exploiting" Star Wars, I'm reminded of an interview with Peanuts creator Charles Shultz.
Shultz was asked if he was concerned that the marketing of his Peanuts characters violated his "art." Schultz was shocked. "I draw Peanuts as a way to make my living" he replied. He was less concerned with "art" and more concerned with being a good businessman.
George isn't forcing people to buy his products or locking them into a system they can't easily extract themselves from (*cough* Bill Gates *cough*). If he's rereleasing movies in different formats, its because he knows theres a market for them. You want to show George you're mad at him? Don't buy his products.
As for me, I'm going to go play some Lego Star Wars with my kids, who throughly dig all things Star Wars, and whose childhoods are just fine, thank you.
The Eagle transporter was cool though, a practical design and it accurately relfected the fact that a ship built for space didn't have to be smooth and aerodynamic... aka Enterprise.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Lucas was well settled into money before Star Wars came along, and if the fame and fourtune of the first movie didn't influence the second and third, why would they influence the prequels? I think it's more likely that Lucas is old and now has better things to do with his time (kids, etc) than sketch out stories for fun. Age has a funny way of making your priorities change, and with those priorities, your creativity and ideas change.
Lucas' Jedi mind tricks won't work on me. I haven't seen eps I or II. I will see III, and I've read a ton of the after stories, but that Bantha fodder known as Episodes I & II will never look like anything more than jacked up versions of the Ewoks and Droids cartoons and all the sale-ability of Jedi. Pure crap. Te wanna wanga?
-jÆ Nana korobi ya oki
http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/bollux/eu.h tml
Episode I sucked ass, and I never bothered to see Episode II
Episode I was actually GOOD compared to Episode II, you didn't miss anything.
Yes. "I am your...uncle" tops all the Star Wars product ads I have seen. It would have been my 1st post, but I just saw it last night. But on the good side, it's nice to know that as a society there is still a small faction of us that still see the wrongness in this crap. Granted, Star Wars has always been a marketing machine, but there are still some unforgivable examples. Here are a few...
London Calling by The Clash - Jaguar car commercial. (The song is about fear of nuclear war/fallout. See the connection? I don't.
Lust for Life by Iggy Pop - Carnival Cruise Lines commercial - Cause, you know, most people that take cruises are into songs about herion addiction and deviant sex.
Beautiful World by Devo - Target commercial. I just...but they....what the fuck ever.
How Soon is Now by The Smiths - Used to push the 2000 Nissan Maxima (if I remember correctly) -Insert bitter statement here-
Well, obvioulsy this subject makes me rant, but I think the following true story that happened to me sums it up pretty well...
I have the radio on at work. Local classic rock channel. "Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin is playing. A guy, maybe 18 years old, from another dept comes by and utters the following, "Hey thats the song from that Cadillac commercial."
Readers you just sit there and let that sink in. I'm quite proud of myself for not throat punching him, but I tell you this...the day a Gap commercial comes on and I hear a System of a Down song and see those Armenian, anti-everything rockers pushing Gap khaki capris I will de-rail. But I probably won't even be noticed hauling all those guns up to the top of the bell tower...what with armageddon starting and all.
Turk: Let's play Steak. J.D.: What? Turk: Steak. The 1st person to finish their steak is the winner of Steak. -Scrubs
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Go to imdb.com and look at what he's churned out. It's Ewok TV Specials ad nauseum and "story" credits for spin-offs and sequels. His talent is in marketing his cinematic notions, not screenplays or direction. He's George Lucas, not Orson Wells.
No one has stood in line for "More American Graffiti", "The Ewok Adventure", "Ewoks", "Droids", "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor", "Captain EO", "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis", "Indiana Jed", "Star Wars: Rebel Assault", "Radioland Murders", "Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen", "Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", "Star Wars: Yoda Stories", "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: The Trenches of Hell", "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Spring Break Adventure" (no doubt this one is underappreciated), "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Masks of Evil", "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Adventures in the Secret Service", "Star Wars: Obi-Wan", "R2-D2: Beneath the Dome", and "Star Wars: Clone Wars".
Lucas invites a certain type of derision because the difference between American Graffiti and Star Wars left us thinking he was versatile like Wilder or Speilberg, but he has the resume of an anonymous hack.
Episode III is definitely worth a cheap matinee screening, there were only a couple of emo love scenes that made me groan, and one really terrible moment that... oh hell, it cancelled out the awesome parts entirely. Nevermind.