oragator said:
Science fiction in cinema was considered B grade crap until first 2001 came out, but then Star Wars blew the doors open and legit iced the genre. Close Encounters as the first fast follow though. You also had ET a half decade later, Superman not long after, among others.
But semi side rant on Star Wars,...no one who wasn't alive then will ever fully appreciate the phenomena that was the original film, and how it changed pop culture, cinema, brought sci fi mainstream, revolutionized FX etc. Just for emphasis on that, the film opened Memorial Day weekend, dominated the box office all summer, and its largest box office weekend that year was Labor Day. When they announced the end of the run the following year July (over a year in theaters), in had its biggest box office weekend yet the last week as people rushed to see it one more time, and so they ran it another four months.
It was the first film with action figures that I remember, the first to have devoted fans like it had, the first to spawn its own industry etc. it did a tad bit more than "Gain traction".
^THIS
I've said similar many times.
You cannot imagine the cultural impact and change from Star Wars. It was like a complete awakening for me and for the genre.
Prior to that Sci Fi was either too adult and confusing like 2001 or saucer on a string level ridiculous and robot costume stupidity, or terrible sort of claymation with miniature sets like Godzilla. Planet of the Apes was considered sci fi too then but it had several lame sequels by then with budgets getting lower and lower...... borderline sci fi at best but it had some big audiences too but it was not the cultural impact that SW was.
It was so bad I actually went to Star Wars kicking and screaming figuratively (I was 11). I lived in S. Korea until July of 1977 and we had not heard about Star Wars over there yet - no international release back then. on the military base we got movie 9 months after the states had them and SW had not arrived of course as it was only 2 months old. I didn't yet know of any kids that moved over and had seen it either. It was never even mentioned to me until....
My parents said it was supposed to be so great and took me and my sister to it the 2nd day we were back in the states - outside Vegas visiting my grandfather.
It was such a mind blowing experience I could not even comprehend how great what I just saw was - I immediately demanded to see it again and again and again.....they refused to do it immediately but we went the next day again. And ^he mentioned the long run up above - for the next year plus I saw it 25+ times in the theater. Not an exaggeration. I saw it multiple times off base with new friends when we moved to Leavenworth. And over the next year plus on a weekend if we had nothing else going on we would go to a matinee showing on the base - we could get in for 50 cents and a coke and popcorn was another 25 cents and 50 cents respectively.
It was all kids talked about for like a year solid - all the action figures, comics, books, lunch boxes, costumes, etc. it became a complete phenomenon.We were totally obsessed. And I recall it being the first movie where it was known there would be a sequel early on and we were so pumped about that - reading anything over the next 2-3 years that came out about it.
