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."

Comments

He joined the dark side to get there...

[gameboyhippo]

If anybody has the DVD set, there's some interesting documentry on there that shows his struggles with the big movie producers (that is FOX) and how it was a battle between his independent creativity and the wants of the studio.

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.

Re:He joined the dark side to get there...

[srlunsford]

It seems like in those days, Lucas was much more creative than he is now...It's as if working within those budget constraints and having to face opposition from the major studios at the time forced him to create a compelling (if not slightly hokey) story that completely drew audiences in.

In my opinion, he's simply trying too hard to make a blockbuster. Star Wars was meant to be a cheesy little space opera, not some grandiose epic. While RotS may be a decent film in its own right, I doubt it will have the appeal of the original trilogy.

George Lucas's wealth

[PCM2]

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.

"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.) ... 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.

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Re:It startde with the New Gods comic in 1971...

[TooMuchEspressoGuy]

I'm sorry, but, while a good conspiracy theory, this is about as silly as Battlestar: Galactica getting sued because of its similarities to Star Wars back in the day.

Essentially, there are several archetypes (one could even call them "stereotypes") of the sci-fi genre that a great many filmmakers and writers have adopted for their own use. Motifs such as the villain being the hero's father, a spiritual father figure to the hero, and mystical overtones (such as the Force) can be found ALL OVER sci-fi movies and literature. Lucas was not the first to adopt them, and he undoubtedly will not be the last.

But, of course, the fact that these archetypes are being used over and over again by no means means that they cannot be used *well.* Peoples' fond memories of the original SW movies, the plot/characters of which were somewhat cliche as far as sci-fi movies go, only proves the point. Luke was the naive hero, Han the roguish "wild card", Leia the "damsel in distress", Vader the evil villain. What matters, however, is that Lucas honed each part to near-perfection, such that the characters were so believable and *human* that they didn't *seem* like stereotypes. I believe that it's this element that is sorely missing from the prequels, but that's another rant altogether!