Homicidal_Squirrel
Adventurer
I thought Lucas suckered all the actors into giving up their points and royalties and what-have-you for a bit of extra cash?
Alec Guinness' letter about this "Star Wars" movie he was filming
sabrinathecat
Explorer
One of the (many) possibly apocryphal tales during the making of SW is that the reason Kenobi dies on the Death Star is that Lucas didn't have him doing anything during the death-star trench run, and he thought that there needed to be a reason Kenobi wasn't the one blowing up the death star.
When a fan told AG he'd watched starwars a dozen times, AG reportedly asked him a favor: Never watch that movie again.
I think only the $ and the fact that Lucas was having so little to do with ESB are what brought him back for his ghost scenes in the sequels.
When a fan told AG he'd watched starwars a dozen times, AG reportedly asked him a favor: Never watch that movie again.
I think only the $ and the fact that Lucas was having so little to do with ESB are what brought him back for his ghost scenes in the sequels.
Homicidal_Squirrel
Adventurer
Smart guy.
I know royalties have been around for a while, but was it common for actors to get a percentage of the gross back in the 70s and earlier?
Sometimes yes as the video markets were just getting started and it was a way for them to get into that market. Most of the time, it was a flat fee but with video's being made, stars at the time were normally not getting anything from them.
You have to remember that Star Wars: A New Hope changed Hollywood, even saved it, people kept going back, over and over again. Other movies did not do that, it was a very small percentage that saw a movie twice up until this time, let alone five or more times.
The question is did that include the toys, as Lucas got everything on their royalties.
Last edited:
Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
My understanding was always that it was very UNcommon for unknown actors in particular to be given points (Guinness and Peter Cushing were the only "known" actors, Cushing for Hammer horror films and Guinness as much for old b/w comedies as Bridge on the River Kwai). The whole enterprise was rather an unknown quantity as it was a VERY expensive film with revolutionary special effects using computer-controlled cameras and what-all. Not a lot of people were thinking it was actually going to succeed since their idea of SF movies was defined by heaps of the worst low-budget schlock from the 50's and 60's. So, giving the actors points of the gross in this case was somewhat seen as low-risk at the time because the movie stood a good chance of bombing and they'd have been limited to their meager up-front pay and royalties. The smart thing Lucas did was retain for himself the MERCHANDISING. The movie was wildly profitable of course, but the more staggering sums of cash were produced in the merchandising.
But, that's remembering things I'd read about it FORTY years ago...
Homicidal_Squirrel
Adventurer
From what I hear/read somewhere, Lucas negotiated the rights to all the merchandise in exchange for less money to direct the movie. I think he ended up buying the rights to the merchandise from the actors. If I remember correctly, and again - this is what I heard/read somewhere I can't be totally sure, Lucas paid the actors for those rights. He gave them a big chunk of change up front, and he got all their rights o merchandise, points for the movie, and royalties.
