Once upon a time, in our galaxy

This is the story of Star Wars. A classic example of how a movie that was never to be made went on to become a cult classic.

In 1977, the new head of 20th Century Fox, Alan Ladd Jr. attended the Star Wars premiere in Japan. At the end of the movie, the silence that gripped the theater surprised him. When all the major studios at the time rejected George Lucas’ 14-page treatment, it was Ladd who saw something in the project and finally approved it for a budget of $8 million. He wondered if he made a mistake. But no. What Ladd didn’t realize was that silence was the greatest honor that a Japanese audience can bestow on a film.

George Lucas had just finished making American Graffiti in 1973 and the following year, sat to write a screenplay that had a whiff of Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress in its heart. He spent a full year on it and came up with a 200 page screenplay. Since he didn’t want to condense it, Lucas decided to make the film from the first third of the screenplay and use the remaining thirds to make sequels. Lucas’ screenplay didn’t find any takers as none of the major studios felt science fiction as a genre easy to market at the time.

But Fox’s Alan Ladd appeared to be impressed with American Graffiti which led him to give Lucas a chance. Conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie also played a key role since Lucas had hired him to create paintings of a number of scenes which helped him sell the screenplay to 20th Century Fox. Passion to make the movie made Lucas waive his writer and director fee settling for a paltry $175,000 and 40% of merchandising rights. The Kenner Toys company signed on for the merchandising shortly before Star Wars opened expressing an interest in creating colorful space toys not knowing the movie would be a hit.

The new sci-fi movie needed special effects that were never created before in Hollywood. Hence George Lucas started Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), now a pioneer in visual effects. During production, it was total chaos as the company blew half their budget on four shots which Lucas rejected. Ultimately, ILM spent $5 million out of the 8 that Fox had approved. 20th Century Fox was so sure that the movie was going to be a disaster but positive feedback from an advanced screening made them change their minds.

A potential blockbuster The Other Side of Midnight was on its way and most of the theaters didn’t exude any interest in buying Star Wars. When 20th Century Fox found that its attempts to distribute the film in the U.S. were bleak, it threatened that any theater refusing to screen Star Wars would be denied rights to The Other Side of Midnight.

On 25th May, 1977, the first movie to be screened in Dolby Stereo, Star Wars opened in the cinemas and by November, had become the all-time box-office champ. The Other Side of Midnight ended up grossing less than 10% of what Star Wars did and the year end profit of 20th Century Fox touched 79 million, which was 42 million more than its greatest profit ever made in one year. And the movie went on to become a worldwide pop-culture .