How I'd fix Star Wars

[Yora]

That part I agree with, and it's why a lot of the old EU material never sat well with me. Much as it's nice to see more of these characters, to me they'd earned their happy endings, and I was never interested in seeing them thrown back into conflict after conflict.

X-Wing and Heir to the Empire had the Rebels continue making progress from what they had accomplished in the movies. There's still a lot more to do, but nothing that has been gained is getting lost in those stories.

 

[dirtypool]

People forget that the original Star Wars was low budget, and therefore could be risky. If it had flopped, little harm done. But it's unlikely a low budget movie could achieve blockbuster status these days, because of the cost of advertising and audience expectations with regard to FX.

That's not entirely accurate. Of the top 10 highest grossing movies of 1977, Star Wars was the fourth most expensive coming in just behind A Bridge Too Far, Close Encounters and The Spy Who Loved Me.

Star Wars was a hefty budget compared to most other films of the time and a dollar to dollar inflation rate doesn't quite illustrate what budgets were like back then.

 

[ART!]

That's not entirely accurate. Of the top 10 highest grossing movies of 1977, Star Wars was the fourth most expensive coming in just behind A Bridge Too Far, Close Encounters and The Spy Who Loved Me.

Star Wars was a hefty budget compared to most other films of the time and a dollar to dollar inflation rate doesn't quite illustrate what budgets were like back then.

Good points!

It was a big budget for a movie that Lucas had a hard time getting a studio to commit to. After the success of the relatively low-budget, very relatable American Graffiti ($777k budget, $140 million box office), I suspect studios wanted more of that from Lucas - not some weird, expensive space thing.

 

[ReshiIRE]

Good points!

It was a big budget for a movie that Lucas had a hard time getting a studio to commit to. After the success of the relatively low-budget, very relatable American Graffiti ($777k budget, $140 million box office), I suspect studios wanted more of that from Lucas - not some weird, expensive space thing.

Is that in today's US dollar or the US dollar of the time? Because that seems like one of the biggest cost to profit ratios I've seen from a film, holy crap.

 

[Zardnaar]

Is that in today's US dollar or the US dollar of the time? Because that seems like one of the biggest cost to profit ratios I've seen from a film, holy crap.

Blair Witch Project and another film from 2007 were more iirc.

 

[Clint_L]

Is that in today's US dollar or the US dollar of the time? Because that seems like one of the biggest cost to profit ratios I've seen from a film, holy crap.

I believe it was the cost versus profit champion for decades, until Blair Witch finally unseated it. Thanks to Star Wars, people tend to forget that Graffiti was a phenomenon in its own right.

 

[MGibster]

It makes the Empire Incompetent and trivialises them as a threat. But yeah! the reast of the movie is pretty good.

In the words of Harrison Ford, "It ain't that kind of movie, kid." Star Wars got made because Lucas couldn't secure the rightrs to Flash Gordon and the movie featuers space wizards, World War II dog fights in space, and a mawg, a half-man half-dog being who is his own best friend. I might need to check that last one again. The only Star Wars stories I can think of that portrays an Empire that seems competent is Andor.

 

[Older Beholder]

I always thought Mad Max had the best box office to budget ratio (maybe that’s just what the tell us in Australia) before things like Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity came along.

 

[dirtypool]

I believe it was the cost versus profit champion for decades, until Blair Witch finally unseated it. Thanks to Star Wars, people tend to forget that Graffiti was a phenomenon in its own right.

Graffiti was a phenomenal critical hit, no doubting that and it was a smash success. But the budget to profit claim is somewhat murkier because the 140M is an aggregate profit of two separate releases of the film and arthouse touring prints.

The initial release of Graffiti in 1973 earned 55 Million. It was then re-released five years later in 1978 and that release earned 63 Million bringing the total to 118 Million. Second Run prints became available for arthouse showings in 1979 and toured throughout the next forty years bringing the theatrical total up to its current 140M.

Usually when comparing profit to budget, additional releases are not counted. Which is why even after the second release Halloween with its 30 Million return on a 375K budget was touted as a bigger budget to profit ratio than Graffiti.

If you add additional release profit, touring prints, and holdover releases - the landscape would change DRAMATICALLY. I suspect based on arthouse theaters that do monthly (and in cases even weekly) screenings: The Rocky Horror Picture Show would suddenly jump to the top of most profit ranking lists.

Films like Texas Chainsaw, Friday the 13th, The Brothers McMullen, Clerks, Mad Max, Eraserhead and others all enjoyed higher ROI percentages than Graffiti's original theatrical run.

 

[S'mon]

In the words of Harrison Ford, "It ain't that kind of movie, kid." Star Wars got made because Lucas couldn't secure the rightrs to Flash Gordon and the movie featuers space wizards, World War II dog fights in space, and a mawg, a half-man half-dog being who is his own best friend. I might need to check that last one again. The only Star Wars stories I can think of that portrays an Empire that seems competent is Andor.

General Veers seemed competent to me. He had a job and he did it! We are not shown many operational details, but a successful ground assault without air cover is usually not easy. Pity the navy as usual failed to interdict properly.