9. The earth-shattering special effects almost didn’t occur
Star Wars set another standard for special effects when it appeared in 1977, yet Industrial Light and Magic’s initial feature was nearly its last. Amid shooting, John Dykstra and the rest of the ILM group furnished Lucas with footage that should be projected onto the set amid filming. However, it was mostly shabby and out of focus thereby compelling the team to utilize blue screens and, obviously, pushing the film much further behind the calendar. At the point when central photography finished and Lucas came back to Hollywood, he discovered that the ILM group had blown through half of their $2 million budget plan and just finished three shots and none of those were usable.
As indicated by Kurtz, it wasn’t that the special effects group was languid, or that they weren’t putting forth a valiant effort. They were just chaotic. For instance, while the greater part of the group was recording in England the ILM group would just work on one shot at one time. They’d set up the scene, catch the footage, and wait to have it created before disassembling the apparatus and proceeding onward to the following shot. This slowed down the process of production.
At last, Kurtz ventured in and streamlined the procedure, while Lucas helped by editing together dogfights from old war movies so as to enable ILM’s staff to envision Star Wars’ space fights. In the meantime, Ladd rummaged together a tiny bit more cash (the special effects division wound up going over-budget by around 35%), an outside company was contracted to make convincing blasts, and the special effects artists worked day in and out to complete the film on time, finishing an average of one shot in one day.
10. The studio practically buried the film
Although an early screening for studio officials went well, Fox didn’t know how to sell Star Wars to people. Along these lines, they didn’t. Rather, the studio put its marketing efforts behind The Other Side of Midnight, a Charles Jarrott (Mary, Queen of the Scots) film featuring Marie-France Pisier and Susan Sarandon. Dissimilar to Star Wars, which was an obscure property, he Other Side of Midnight was based on a top of the line novel, and had a well built-in audience.
The theater owners felt that Star Wars was a “kid movie” and did not want to screen it. With a specific goal to support circulation, Fox compelled theater chains that wanted The Other Side of Midnight to book Star Wars also. At last, the film opened on 32 screens around the nation on 25th May, 1977. An additional 11 began screening the film on 26th May and 27th May. At the point when Fox reached Larry Gleason, leader of Mann Theaters, about screening Star Wars at Hollywood’s famous Chinese Theater, they guaranteed that the film would be over in the next two weeks.
Obviously, they weren’t right. Star Wars broke record after record in both attendance and film industry returns. Fox ventured into as many number markets as could be expected. By September, Star Wars was in 1,100 theaters. This was an unfathomable number at the time. Its first theatrical run went on for over a year. On 3rd August, 1977, a huge number of fans assembled outside Mann’s Chinese Theatre as R2-D2 and C-3PO plunged their feet in cement outside. They added their footprints alongside screen legends like John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, and Charlton Heston. Star Wars’ second stay at Mann’s Chinese, the first time ever in history that film came back to the area amid its initial run, kept going on until June 1978.
