Case:The Star Wars Trilogy
Case:The Star Wars Trilogy
You have probably seen Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, or Return of the Jedi. But you might not know that these three films constitute the most successful sequence ever produced. Few films enjoy success when rereleased. Those that have been successful, such as Walt Disney's Pinocchio, are generally rereleased only at seven-year intervals. Yet the 1977 film, Star Wars, was successfully rereleased five times by 1987. The intergalactic aspect of the trilogy is obvious. Less obvious, though, are the international dimensions, right here on planet earth, that contributed to the films' triumphs.
The deal to produce Star Wars was international from the start. George Lucas, the American producer, had written short summaries of two films he wished to make. He took his ideas to every studio in Hollywood, and each one turned him down. In desperation, he used his last $2000 to buy a ticket to the Cannes (France) Film Festival, in the hope of gaining some backing. There he made an agreement with a Hollywood studio for production of American Graffiti and Star Wars.
When the time came to film Star Wars, cost data were obtained from several technically capable interior facilities. The contract was awarded to a studio outside London. The lower wages of British technicians more than offset the additional costs of transporting personnel from the United States to Great Britain. By the time The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were filmed, the labor cost differentials were no longer significant, but it was convenient to stay on at the English studios, since personnel were working so well together.
Not everything was filmed in England, however. The films' success was due largely to the fact that the extraterrestrial locales appeared authentic. At times the technicians used plates filmed elsewhere to go behind interior
scenes shot in England. For instance, in Star Wars the Alliance leaders plot the destruction of the Death Star from
the secret Rebel base on the planet Yavin. The background
for Yavin was in fact the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal in
Guatemala. At other times it was necessary to film on lo-
cation because of action taking place within rather than
in front of scenery. For the scenes in which R2-D2 and
C-3PO crash on the desert planet Tatooine, are captured
by Jawas, and are sold to a local moisture farmer and his nephew (Luke Skywalker), the filming actually took place on the Sahara Desert in Tunisia. At the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back the Rebel force is held up in a hideout on the ice planet Hoth. In reality this was a place above the Arctic Circle in Norway.
In addition to the logistics of filming real actors in different locations, these scenes had to be combined with the miniature effects, which were made at a specially constructed monster factory in California. As shots were completed for The Empire Strikes Back, vidéocassettes had to be transported 6000 miles. Because of transportation and communications advances,
global collaboration in film making has become commonplace. These advances enable us to see more realistic-looking scenes than were possible only a few years before Star Wars.
The actors were primarily U.S. and U.K. nationals. Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill, who played Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker, respectively, were all from the United States. Alec Guinness, who played Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi, and Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO, were both from the United Kingdom. Lord Darth Vader could be characterized as a binational—the actor, David Prowse, is British; however, James Earl Jones, an American, did the voice because of Prowse's strong Devon farmer's accent.
The distribution of the films has been truly international. The expectation of receiving both domestic and foreign income is necessary to justify the risky investment in a high-cost film. About 40 percent of the revenues have come from outside the United States; however, there have been some formidable obstacles. For example, most communist countries prohibited entry before they began their economic and political reforms. Some other countries, such as Haiti and Mali, have such poor economies that few people can afford to see the films. Even if attendance could be generated, the moviegoers would pay in their local currencies, which are gourdes and francs, respectively. Since the governments are also poor, especially in ownership of other currencies, they would be hard-pressed to convert the gourdes and francs to a currency that the producers could use. The film distributors have made separate agreements with each country that shows one of the Star Wars trilogy so that revenues will come back to Lucasfilm Ltd., the producer, in U.S. dollars.
Almost everywhere the films have been screened, they have received high public acceptance. This has been due at least in part to good reviews and shrewd marketing, yet many films that share these attributes still fail to become international hits. What these films did, which was probably the critical factor in their success, was to portray universal themes. The noted French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss has studied widespread cultures and observed common threads in their myths, tragedies, and fairy tales. He attributed this commonality to the fact that the mind classifies by opposing absolutes, such as good versus evil. Another explanation may be that there is a bit of the child in all of us, all over the world, and as George Lucas said, "Star Wars is a movie for children." Yet the success of this trilogy has been more marked in some countries than in others. In Denmark, for example, revenues have been less than stellar, probably because the Danes simply do not like science fiction.
The films' widespread acceptance should not lead one to conclude that the films and their promotion were identical everywhere. The language dubbing of dialogue and/or the placement of subtitles is a costly but standard process necessary to appeal to a mass clientele who do not understand
well the original language in films. Subtitles were necessary everywhere, in fact, for the characters speaking languages of foreign planets. These languages were drawn from combinations of obscure earthly dialects. In Return of the Jedi, for example, Jabba the Hutt's language was taken from an Inca-Indian dialect, and the Ewoks' was taken from a combination of five languages that included Mongolian, Tibetan, and Nepali.
Another standard but costly process involves review and approval by censors, without which the showing of a film may be either prohibited altogether or restricted to only part of the target audience. The Star Wars trilogy was no exception. Although intended for children, censors in a number of countries found some scenes too violent for youthful audiences. In Sweden, for example, Lucasfilm had to cut out the sequence of Return of the Jedi in which a monster swallows its victims and lets them die slowly and painfully during a thousand-year dinner.
Promotional techniques varied from country to country because experienced distributors knew what would most likely attract film patrons. The stars were hustled to Australia to sit for newspaper, radio, and television interviews. In Japan the advertisements were more action oriented than elsewhere. In Spain The Empire Strikes Back was entered into the Madrid Film Festival, which gave it national recognition and acceptance.
There has been no need to alter the films technically since 35-millimeter projection has become the worldwide standard for theatrical showings. For television, however, there are no worldwide standards—for example, an Italian TV set cannot pick up French programs. As revenues from television transmission are crucial for the success of films, high-quality, expensive conversions must be done for each television transmission system where sales are to be made.
One of the big revenue sources for the Star Wars trilogy has been the sale of worldwide rights to such firms as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and the Atari Division of Warner Communications to produce and sell Star Wars products, ranging from bubble gum and books to wallpaper, piggy banks, and underpants. By the tenth anniversary of the premier of Star Wars, the retail sales of these products were more than $2.6 billion. The companies that have been given rights have themselves sometimes depended heavily on foreign operations. For example, more than $400 million in Star Wars merchandise has been sold in the United Kingdom. Rather than selling directly abroad themselves, some of the companies have made separate subcontracts with foreign firms to produce and sell particular products in the foreign countries. They have also produced abroad for the U.S. market. Take one company, the Kenner Division of General Mills. Its All Terrain Armored Transport accessories are manufactured in Hong Kong, the Return of the Jedi action figures, in Taiwan, and the Laser Pistol, in Macao. The Chewbacca Bandoleer Strap is assembled in Mexico from parts that are made in the United States.
You have probably seen Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, or Return of the Jedi. But you might not know that these three films constitute the most successful sequence ever produced. Few films enjoy success when rereleased. Those that have been successful, such as Walt Disney's Pinocchio, are generally rereleased only at seven-year intervals. Yet the 1977 film, Star Wars, was successfully rereleased five times by 1987. The intergalactic aspect of the trilogy is obvious. Less obvious, though, are the international dimensions, right here on planet earth, that contributed to the films' triumphs.
The deal to produce Star Wars was international from the start. George Lucas, the American producer, had written short summaries of two films he wished to make. He took his ideas to every studio in Hollywood, and each one turned him down. In desperation, he used his last $2000 to buy a ticket to the Cannes (France) Film Festival, in the hope of gaining some backing. There he made an agreement with a Hollywood studio for production of American Graffiti and Star Wars.
When the time came to film Star Wars, cost data were obtained from several technically capable interior facilities. The contract was awarded to a studio outside London. The lower wages of British technicians more than offset the additional costs of transporting personnel from the United States to Great Britain. By the time The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were filmed, the labor cost differentials were no longer significant, but it was convenient to stay on at the English studios, since personnel were working so well together.
Not everything was filmed in England, however. The films' success was due largely to the fact that the extraterrestrial locales appeared authentic. At times the technicians used plates filmed elsewhere to go behind interior
scenes shot in England. For instance, in Star Wars the Alliance leaders plot the destruction of the Death Star from
the secret Rebel base on the planet Yavin. The background
for Yavin was in fact the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal in
Guatemala. At other times it was necessary to film on lo-
cation because of action taking place within rather than
in front of scenery. For the scenes in which R2-D2 and
C-3PO crash on the desert planet Tatooine, are captured
by Jawas, and are sold to a local moisture farmer and his nephew (Luke Skywalker), the filming actually took place on the Sahara Desert in Tunisia. At the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back the Rebel force is held up in a hideout on the ice planet Hoth. In reality this was a place above the Arctic Circle in Norway.
In addition to the logistics of filming real actors in different locations, these scenes had to be combined with the miniature effects, which were made at a specially constructed monster factory in California. As shots were completed for The Empire Strikes Back, vidéocassettes had to be transported 6000 miles. Because of transportation and communications advances,
global collaboration in film making has become commonplace. These advances enable us to see more realistic-looking scenes than were possible only a few years before Star Wars.
The actors were primarily U.S. and U.K. nationals. Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill, who played Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker, respectively, were all from the United States. Alec Guinness, who played Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi, and Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO, were both from the United Kingdom. Lord Darth Vader could be characterized as a binational—the actor, David Prowse, is British; however, James Earl Jones, an American, did the voice because of Prowse's strong Devon farmer's accent.
The distribution of the films has been truly international. The expectation of receiving both domestic and foreign income is necessary to justify the risky investment in a high-cost film. About 40 percent of the revenues have come from outside the United States; however, there have been some formidable obstacles. For example, most communist countries prohibited entry before they began their economic and political reforms. Some other countries, such as Haiti and Mali, have such poor economies that few people can afford to see the films. Even if attendance could be generated, the moviegoers would pay in their local currencies, which are gourdes and francs, respectively. Since the governments are also poor, especially in ownership of other currencies, they would be hard-pressed to convert the gourdes and francs to a currency that the producers could use. The film distributors have made separate agreements with each country that shows one of the Star Wars trilogy so that revenues will come back to Lucasfilm Ltd., the producer, in U.S. dollars.
Almost everywhere the films have been screened, they have received high public acceptance. This has been due at least in part to good reviews and shrewd marketing, yet many films that share these attributes still fail to become international hits. What these films did, which was probably the critical factor in their success, was to portray universal themes. The noted French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss has studied widespread cultures and observed common threads in their myths, tragedies, and fairy tales. He attributed this commonality to the fact that the mind classifies by opposing absolutes, such as good versus evil. Another explanation may be that there is a bit of the child in all of us, all over the world, and as George Lucas said, "Star Wars is a movie for children." Yet the success of this trilogy has been more marked in some countries than in others. In Denmark, for example, revenues have been less than stellar, probably because the Danes simply do not like science fiction.
The films' widespread acceptance should not lead one to conclude that the films and their promotion were identical everywhere. The language dubbing of dialogue and/or the placement of subtitles is a costly but standard process necessary to appeal to a mass clientele who do not understand
well the original language in films. Subtitles were necessary everywhere, in fact, for the characters speaking languages of foreign planets. These languages were drawn from combinations of obscure earthly dialects. In Return of the Jedi, for example, Jabba the Hutt's language was taken from an Inca-Indian dialect, and the Ewoks' was taken from a combination of five languages that included Mongolian, Tibetan, and Nepali.
Another standard but costly process involves review and approval by censors, without which the showing of a film may be either prohibited altogether or restricted to only part of the target audience. The Star Wars trilogy was no exception. Although intended for children, censors in a number of countries found some scenes too violent for youthful audiences. In Sweden, for example, Lucasfilm had to cut out the sequence of Return of the Jedi in which a monster swallows its victims and lets them die slowly and painfully during a thousand-year dinner.
Promotional techniques varied from country to country because experienced distributors knew what would most likely attract film patrons. The stars were hustled to Australia to sit for newspaper, radio, and television interviews. In Japan the advertisements were more action oriented than elsewhere. In Spain The Empire Strikes Back was entered into the Madrid Film Festival, which gave it national recognition and acceptance.
There has been no need to alter the films technically since 35-millimeter projection has become the worldwide standard for theatrical showings. For television, however, there are no worldwide standards—for example, an Italian TV set cannot pick up French programs. As revenues from television transmission are crucial for the success of films, high-quality, expensive conversions must be done for each television transmission system where sales are to be made.
One of the big revenue sources for the Star Wars trilogy has been the sale of worldwide rights to such firms as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and the Atari Division of Warner Communications to produce and sell Star Wars products, ranging from bubble gum and books to wallpaper, piggy banks, and underpants. By the tenth anniversary of the premier of Star Wars, the retail sales of these products were more than $2.6 billion. The companies that have been given rights have themselves sometimes depended heavily on foreign operations. For example, more than $400 million in Star Wars merchandise has been sold in the United Kingdom. Rather than selling directly abroad themselves, some of the companies have made separate subcontracts with foreign firms to produce and sell particular products in the foreign countries. They have also produced abroad for the U.S. market. Take one company, the Kenner Division of General Mills. Its All Terrain Armored Transport accessories are manufactured in Hong Kong, the Return of the Jedi action figures, in Taiwan, and the Laser Pistol, in Macao. The Chewbacca Bandoleer Strap is assembled in Mexico from parts that are made in the United States.
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