Twenty two years after
the release of the original film Star Wars, as the whole world knows,
is about to hit our screens again in the form of The Phantom Menace,
the fourth film in the Star Wars sequence, although it is chronologically
the first part of the narrative.
The extraordinary hype
which heralded the films impending release really took off with
the trailer which caused a sensation in America. Upon its release
in November last year, queues formed at cinemas all across the country,
paid their $9, and then promptly left a few minutes after curtains
up. Some had even camped out early in the morning to be sure of
a seat. The two-minute trailer for The Phantom Menace was unsurprisingly
being dubbed The World's Most Successful Trailer of all-time. Many
industry insiders claim that the popularity the teaser resulted
in a 1,147 per cent increase in ticket sales for the three films
it played before, The Rugrats Movie, The Waterboy and Enemy Of The
State.
In April, Americans
begin queuing outside a Los Angeles cinema for the opening of the
film which would not be premiered for another six weeks. Because
of fears about the illicit fortunes to be made from the resale of
tickets, the studio has refused to allow advance booking. A video
camera relays the experiences of the movie-goer first in line to
an Internet website 24 hours a day.
Inevitably the film
is accompanied by a huge merchandising campaign. It is estimate
that there have been $4.5 billion in retail sales of Star Wars merchandise
since the first film was released 22 years ago which is four times
as much as the first three films themselves made. Some movie goers
who managed to gain a prize ticket to the preview screenings were
heard to complained that the film was too geared for children, they
must have obviously forgotten that they were children when they
saw it first and fanatical collectors to not spend billions on children's
toys, harassed parents though do anything for a bit of peace and
quite.
The films have made
George Lucas a billionaire through a deal which 20th Century Fox
Execs are still kicking themselves for - Lucas took a directors
fee for the first film provided he retained all rights to merchandising
and sequels. Since few had any faith in the first film even having
moderate success it seemed a painless deal, but of course history
has proven otherwise. Lucas is paying all production costs out of
his own pocket for The Phantom Menace and therefore will retain
all profits, Twentieth Century Fox will get a cut only for distribution.
Lucas has another highly
lucrative income source in Industrial Light & Magic the special
effects company he set up to create the ground breaking special
effects for the original series and has for the past two decades
been the top effects house in Hollywood. Lucas's knowledge of the
effects industry and eye for innovation has led to a large part
of the Phantom Menace being shot digitally, and his production company
Lucasfilm has confirmed that it would be deploying a new electronic
camera system developed by Sony and Panavision on the two remaining
Star Wars episodes. Sony's 24-frame progressive scan high-definition
production system means that Lucas need never leave the digital
environment until he is ready to make the final transfer to 35mm
celluloid.
With the all the hype
the major studios were well aware when they set up their schedules
that "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," was going to dominate
international territories this summer as 20th Century Fox rolls
the film out overseas following its North American launch this week.
The film seems to be so powerful that it is reported to have tied
up European theatres for eight to 12 weeks.
The ultimate test for
the film will not be the critics or the fans but the kids, and they're
a far more sophisticated audience in 1999 than they were in 1977,
after all the height of video game technology back then was pong
!.
The film launch's in
Australia; Brazil on June 3, South Korea and Taiwan come on board
later in June; and Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom and Ireland
see the film early in July. In August, Fox is sending "The Phantom
Menace" to Germany and Spain. Italy and France get the film in the
early Autumn.
Star Wars I: The Phantom
Menace opens in Ireland on July 16.
As of this morning (20/5/99)
Twentieth Century Fox is estimating grosses in the vicinity of $7.5
million for Wednesday night shows between 12:01 a.m. and 6 a.m.
"Menace," which opened Wednesday on a total of 2,970 theaters, is
on track to top the record single-day gross of $26.1 million, set
by Universal's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" in 1997