A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
© Christophe L ; Portrait : Sébastien Plassard
1977: the cultural phenomenon Star Wars is unleashed on the world. 46 years later, the universe born from George Lucas’s imagination has become a financial empire and continues to amaze millions of fans.
No studio had faith in the vision of 29-year-old George Lucas and his mid-1970s Star Wars film project. Space opera was not a genre favoured by Hollywood and the film seemed technically infeasible at the time. However, thanks to the success of his previous film, American Graffiti, and the backing of 20th Century Fox, Lucas succeeded in launching his ambitious project.
With no major studio having a special effects department, he created Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) from scratch. From 1975, industrial designers, architects and engineers built special cameras and computers in a Californian hangar and the production of the first shot of the film took a year and cost a whopping one million dollars. And there were still 800 shots to go! Full of new special effects, the film was released on 19 October, 1977 and was a huge success.
Star Wars quickly became a blockbuster brand, which Lucas had already anticipated by negotiating the rights to Star Wars themed merchandise. Adaptations into novels, comics, television films, series and video games flourished. In 2012, business expanded yet again with the purchase of the franchise Lucasfilm by Disney with the intergalactic universe generating $40 billion in revenue in 20171. In 2020, the spin-off series The Mandalorian allowed the platform Disney+ to reach 100 million subscribers just 16 months after its launch2. And the latest spin-off? Galaxy’s Edge, in the heart of Disney parks in Florida and California, where the sets of the films have been recreated life size. The saga continues...
By Élodie Epaillard, journalist.
1. https://www.challenges.fr/cinema/economie-de-la-rarete-et-merchandising-la-strategie-marketing-de-l-empire-star-wars_690155
2. https://www.etoro.com/fr/news-and-analysis/stocks/star-wars-day-2021/