(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) 2017-5-22"/> May 22, 2017 The date was 1977, and no one had yet worn a copper bikini to bed, made 'whooshing' lightsaber noises with a broomstick or yelled 'May the Fourth be with you' at strangers.
jump forward 40 years and star wars has grown into the most lucrative and influential movie franchise of all time - princess leia's signature side hair buns are all the rage on halloween and jedi is an official religion in several countries. 'i'm running out of hyperbolic adjectives to describe the power of star wars, but that's because it is the ultimate standard-bearer,' said shawn robbins, chief analyst for boxoffice.com. 'four decades of record-breaking, genre-defining entertainment across film, television, video games, toys, books and everything else the brand has touched simply speaks for itself.' with its indie flick budget of just us$11mn, the brash-looking star wars opened on wednesday, may 25, 1977 - the anniversary falls on thursday - on an inauspicious 32 screens, taking in us$1.6mn on its first weekend. bumps in the road starring relative newcomers mark hamill, carrie fisher and harrison ford as swashbuckling luke skywalker, princess leia and han solo, it benefited from word-of-mouth buzz and the crowds lining up to see it quickly grew exponentially. its first theatrical run ended with a phenomenal us$221.3mn while various reissues by 20th century fox brought the domestic total to more than twice that amount. the premiere was at the chinese theatre in hollywood, where it played to sold-out audiences five times a day for over a year, according to resident historian levi tinker, who said that the crowds literally wore out the hand-woven chinese carpet in the lobby. two sequels - the empire strikes back (1980) and return of the jedi (1983) - grossed more than us$450mn each worldwide, but there were sizeable bumps in the road ahead. lucas's 1997 'special edition' reissues were met with jeers thanks to digital tweaks deemed unnecessary or downright off-putting. then there was the lucas-directed 1999-2005 prequel trilogy beginning with the phantom menace - films considered sub-par in almost every department. speculation is already building over the future of the franchise with the approach of the final movies by 2020 but, long before then, fans have rian johnson's the last jedi - the second of the sequels - to look forward to in december. it continues seamlessly from the force awakens (2015), which became one of three films in history to take us$2bn after posting the biggest domestic and worldwide debuts ever. the last jedi' now has the potential tochallengethose numbers and- particularlygiven the goodwill generated by the force awakens and rogue one.