NERD ALERT! There are no spoilers in this article, but prep yourself for the nerdiest article of your life.
About a month and a half ago, (arguably) one of the best movies of all time graced movie screens all over the country. That movie is none other than Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. *main theme blasts through your computer speakers*
As a devoted Star Wars fan (practically) since birth, the movies and culture have a special place in my heart. However, being the young padawan I am at just 19 years old, I never had the pleasure of experiencing the opening weekends of the original movies, or even the (admittedly dreadful) prequels in theatres. However, my mom was sure to educate me on the happenings of Luke, Leia, Chewie, and Han (*heart eyes emoji*).
What’s amazing to look at, however, are the stark differences between opening weekend of the original saga and opening weekend of The Force Awakens, as well as the difference in fan culture over the years.
The Original Opening Weekend
When Episode I: A New Hope (because it was the first one that existed) opened on Wednesday, May 25, 1977, it was only showing on 32 screens across the United States.
Although that number rose to 43 screens by the weekend, 20th Century Fox was having a really hard time getting people to see the movie. Fun Fact: Fox actually had to threaten movie theatres that if they did not play Star Wars in the opening weekend, they were not allowed to play Fox’s next movie (which was predicted to be a hit) in their theatre when it premiered.
Can you believe that?? Arguably the most popular film and toy franchise in the world had trouble getting off it’s feet. It only made about $1.5 million domestically during its opening weekend.
That’s not too surprising, though, when you look at the promotional ads and trailers for A New Hope, that people weren’t fanatic over this movie right away. The trailers and posters are a little vague, and they didn’t do much to hype up the franchise like advertisers do for movies today. Plus, not-so-fun-fact, Lucasfilm had to do a lot of their marketing on their own, without the help of Fox.
It may seem silly to us now, but it was pretty fantastical back then to have movies with this kind of production quality, especially with the pricey effects necessary to make a believable science fiction movie.
The original movie had a small budget (in relation to other movies of the time) of just $11 million. However, over time, George Lucas made countless changes over the years to the original for the re-releases to enhance the original quality and experience.
Another thing that attributed to the non-instantaneous success of Star Wars is that Star Trek had been around for a little over 10 years when this movie came out, so intergalactic space travel and alien worlds were not a new subject to audiences.
George Lucas even said that Star Wars “stood on the shoulders” of Star Trek. Nonetheless, people were really interested in science fiction in the 1960’s and 70’s (as they still are today), and both franchises have equally influenced each other.
Despite some setbacks, the movie pulled through opening weekend, gained a ton of hype, and eventually grossed almost $790 million worldwide. They became the beloved group of the most unlikely, rapscallion intergalactic heroes the world knows today.
The Fans Back Then
Way back when in the 70s and 80s, super fans would dress up as their favorite characters for Halloween. They would dress up and wait in line for the movies to come out just like they would today, but not quite as many people were that involved.
(From the 1983 opening of Return of the Jedi)
Lines were always crazy. If you thought you had to stand in a line for a movie, think again. Your experience was luxury compared to the lines people waited in in the 70s and 80s. There was no such thing as purchasing tickets in advance or buying your tickets online when it came to seeing the original trilogy.
Of course, as true for any popular film franchise, there were tons of toys manufactured to accompany the original movies. In 1978, “The Original Collection” included a “selection of ships and playsets” to go with the 3 ¾” minifigures, as well as 12 large action figures.
(The Original Minifigures)
Fun Fact: The toys were so popular that Kenner (the company that originally sold the toy sets) realized they didn’t have enough toys to last the Christmas season. Because of this, they made this crazy awful decision to sell people empty boxes, where they would then send them to the company to be filled with the toys later. Needless to say, this business ploy didn’t really turn out well.
Aside from the usual clothing memorabilia, as well as tin lunch boxes, comics, and things of the like, the original trading cards were incredibly popularized. Nowadays, you don’t really see collectible trading card sales going through the roof for new franchises. But back in the day, they were all the rage.
Both screen stills and original art are featured on the famous Topps trading cards, and some can even be worth $300 if unopened. Fun Fact: Ever since 1977, Topps has been the official producer of the Star Wars trading cards, and even launched a digital trading card app last year to coincide with the new movie.
The movie coined hundreds of popular terms like “may the force be with you,” made Darth Vader an iconic villain, and influenced plenty science fiction movies and franchises to come. It even made science fiction a blockbuster genre.
The Force Awakens
(*heart eyes emoji*)
Alright, so now we get to present-day, after all of the prequels-who-must-not-be-named, and you get the anxiously-anticipated Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
This new movie had been talked about since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012. On November 28th, 2014, Lucasfilm released the teaser trailer in select theatres, as well as on YouTube and iTunes with a ragingly positive response (it got 58.2 million views on YouTube in its first week of being up).
Critics acclaimed the trailer for its mix of old and new aspects of the franchise, creating a “perfectly potent nostalgia,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. We hear the iconic music, and we get to see John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Daisy Ridley, beautiful human beings who play our new faves (*more heart eyes emojis*).
The movie poster for The Force Awakens was in a similar artistic vein to the previous movies’ promo posters. This provided for increased nostalgia, therefore greatly increasing fans’ excitement.
It was really hard to not get excited about this movie. Ads were everywhere, the trailer was on every channel on TV, toys were coming out, and preexisting fans young and old were already getting hyped. Even the new actors were star struck to work with the actors who started in the legendary franchise.
This new addition to the saga received an amazing 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. They key to the movie’s success was the way director JJ Abrams seamlessly melded together old and new faces, plot lines, and inside jokes, while still keeping the subject matter fresh, interesting, and action-packed. Not to mention how secretive all of the actors had to be about it!
The production budget for The Force Awakens was a whopping $200 million. It made that money back, plus a little extra domestically on opening weekend. So far, it has grossed an insane total of $1.9 billion, making it the #1 film of all-time in the United States, the year 2015, and it is in 3rd place in the worldwide box office.
It was going to be difficult to please the fans with the new movie, but everyone is clearly obsessed. So obsessed, that the fan memorabilia is getting more and more crazy nowadays.
The Fans Awaken
We saw it with Frozen, and with Minions… Star Wars… on everything.
Yep, that’s right. You can find your favorite The Force Awakens characters on literally everything. Just walk into your local Walmart or Target. What do you see? Kylo Ren on your clementines, Kylo Ren on your boxer briefs, Kylo Ren on your bacon, and the list honestly goes on and on.
On top of the clothing merchandising, the toy merchandising is honestly incredible. They became available in “waves” of toys. Companies are going to insane lengths to make some of these action figures look as realistic as possible. A lot of the really high-end ones cost upwards of $300-400!
(These are two of the most adorable human beings on the planet btw.)
One cool fun fact: in December 2014, they released eight Topps trading cards revealing the identities of several characters—intriguing old collectors, as well as those newly interested.
There was a huge red carpet for the California premiere that lasted two hours and aired live on YouTube. It consisted of interviews with the actors, as well as special appearances from BB-8, as well as other beloved characters. Fans today are so obsessed and so devoted that the US premiere was chock-full of Leias, Lukes, Reys, and Finns.
Speaking of crazy fans, you can buy so many more crazy things to fuel your obsession for Star Wars. Fans are so outrageous these days that we need more and more things to satiate our hunger that is Star Wars. Aside from the adorable app-controlled BB-8, my favorites include: the R2-D2 shower head, the Kylo Ren cookie jar, and the Leia costume for your dog.
(Buy this for me, mom.)
In addition to this, fans have made Snapchat versions of the trailer, cultivated intense fan theories (this might count as a *spoiler*, but I firmly believe the one that says Rey is a Kenobi), and crafted the most beautiful fan art I have ever seen.
ON TOP OF THAT! While The Force Awakens is enjoying its fair share of hilarious internet attention, the original saga is getting some well-deserved meme-ing that it did not get to experience when it first came out (ah, the beauty of technology). It’s so funny to see the culture of the ‘70s melding with today’s culture through the internet fanbase.
Notably: The Emo Kylo Ren and @VeryLonelyLuke Twitter accounts.
Also see:
So in conclusion, if you get into any crazy fandom, the Star Wars fandom is probably the best one. There’s something so beautiful and exciting about bringing together people of all ages under a cultural phenomenon that’s lasted almost 40 years.
Episode VIII and IX are going to release in 2017 and 2019, respectively, AND there are going to be Han Solo and Boba Fett spinoffs so get ready for EVEN MORE HYPE!