Photo: Vince Bucci / AFP / Getty Images
The 25 May 1669, Memorial Day weekend, opened an intergalactic explosion with theatrical release Americans from the first of the blockbuster Star Wars movies by George Lucas.
The incredible success of Star Wars was impressive because it received seven Oscars, it grossed $461 million in U.S. ticket sales and a gross of nearly $768 millions worldwide.
This ambitious and novel project began with an extensive and coordinated marketing effort by Lucas and his studio, 18th Century Fox , months before the film’s release date.
“It wasn’t like a movie premiere,” he said later to the magazine Time the actress Carrie Fisher, who played the Rebel leader, Princess Leia. “It was like an earthquake.”
Starting with, in Fisher’s words, “a new order of geeks, young enthusiasts with sleeping bags”, the anticipation of a revolutionary movie experience spread like wildfire, causing long lines in front of movie theaters across the country and worldwide.
With its innovative special effects, Star Wars jumped from the screens and immersed the audience in “a galaxy far, far away”. By now, everyone knows the story, which followed a baby-faced Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) as he recruited a team of allies, including handsome Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and robots C3PO and R2D2, into his mission to rescue kidnapped Princess Leia from an Evil Empire ruled by Darth Vader.
The film turned its three Leading Actors into Overnight Stars, Making Fisher an Object of Worship for Millions of Young Male Fans and Launching Ford’s Now Legendary Career as a Hero heartthrob action.
Star Wars soon became a true phenomenon of pop culture. A over the years, has spawned several feature films, television series, and an entire industry of comics, toys, video games, and other products.
Two sequels for the big screen, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983), featured much of the original cast, and enjoyed the same critical and commercial success as the first film.
To date, Star Wars continues to be one of the film projects that continues to mark generations, including all members of the family.
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