Monday, October 12, 2009

Star Wars as Most Popular Sci Fi Movie


In Wright's excerpt from "Genre Films and the Status Quo," she states that the most popular genres of the American Film Industry are the western film, the science fiction film, the horror film, and the gangster film. I guess these seem to be the most lucrative types of genre, however, in my opinion they are not my favorite kind of genre to go and watch at the movies. Personally, I like more of the romantic comedy or regular fiction, sci-fi, horror, and wild wild west themes are hard for me to relate to and I easily lose interest or get lost in the complex story line. However, there is a reason why these movies have made so much money in Hollywood, and it is because they appeal to most of the general public.
Speak of a popular sci-fi movie... how about Star Wars. Who hasn't heard of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's light sword battles or seen a candy dispenser made out of R2D2? For those of you who don't know, Star wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by director George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, releasing two immediate sequels in carefully spaced out three year intervals. It took 16 years after the release of the trilogy's final film for the first film starting a new prequel trilogy of films to be released again, at three year intervals, and finally the last film opened at the box office on May 19, 2005.
As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the 6 Star Wars films has totalled over $4.3 BILLION dollars, making it the 3rd highest grossing film series behind only the James Bond and Harry Potter films. And this was from an idea originally conceived in 1977. Now, that's impressive!
Wright would explain the immense success of this film is due to the fact that it is "an isolated phenomena" (p.41) meaning that there has been no other series or movie of it's kind, therefore the movie attracts one of a kind viewers, and they stay true to this long series of movies because of the suspense of knowing that nothing else will ever come out like it. The originality and complexity of the storyline draws viewers in and the curiosity of the technology such as light swords that slice people's extremities off or unexplored clips of outer space where many of the scenes take place is insight to a world that continues to draw a huge amount of attention, and it is none other than Star Wars.



1 comment:

  1. ugh
    I saw them all:)
    like ten thousand times each;)
    I know them by heart....
    it was the period when my Dad would watch them all every single effin day... lol :)
    good stuff;)

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