There are so many films that we love and enjoy watching the characters develop during the film and we often wish we could see more but then the other side is these films were so enjoyable as often these are unique one off experiences and it’s impossible to recreate the magic twice. Sequels remakes reboots have become the norm for the studios in recent years with many of these of films made to original films made more than 20 years ago.
As we look to December with the release of Star Wars The Force Awakens the original trilogy released in 1977- 1983 were childhood and adult favourites of mine and millions of others.
In 1997 20th Century Fox re-released the Star Wars trilogy as many hadn’t seen the films on the big screen. I remember having a pirate copy of Return of the Jedi on Betamax which had a big chunk of the end batter scene missing it was only when Odeon Marble Arch had their 70mm film season that I saw the film properly. To promote the re-release 20th Century Fox made this great trailer to show off the impact of seeing the films again on the big screen would be like.
Was working at 20th Century Fox UK in 1999 during the build up and the release of the first two prequels the hype and expectations in a pre social media and internet world was massive. Star Wars actor Anthony Daniels has complained about the secrecy for The Force Awakens which was similar to The Phantom Menace which employees had to sign confidentiality agreements to work on the film.
As soon as the print came into the UK 20th Century Fox screened the film to the whole staff before the screening the audience was buzzing and excited but two hours and a bit hours later the staff were more muted as they left the screening room.
For Attack of the Clones took the first print to arrive in the UK to Scotland for a screening for Ewan Macgregor a couple of hours before the screening I rehearsed the film watching it hours later with Ewan who was seeing the finished film for the first time.
First time around I enjoyed the film second time not so much did see the sequel many more times screening it in 20th Century Fox preview theatres and annoying many Leicester Square projectionists rejecting several prints that I rehearsed at the old Odeon West End.
Disney surprised everyone especially 20th Century Fox acquiring Lucasfilm in October 2012 for $4 billion even more when they immediately announced plans for new trilogy of films as well as spin-off films as many just assumed Disney had brought Lucasfilm for merchandise and theme parks.
The hype surrounding the prequels was is nothing like the hype and expectations surrounding The Force Awakens the pressure is more so with the original cast back and the film being given to another director JJ Abrams to make his own interpretation to what George Lucas has made his own for so many years. For a film such as Star Wars there isn’t the need to tease the audience with footage so early, releasing the first trailer over a year before release might of gotten 100m views but all it did was build the hype and expectations even more and in the months that have followed this has continued to do so.
But all the marketing till now has been targeting the fan-base if The Force Awakens has any chance to beat Avatar and Titanic it needs to attract a wider audience and the female audience maybe that’s why one of the many promotions launched on #ForceFriday was Star Wars inspired Covergirl makeup Campbell’s Soup and dog collars.
Force Friday has only boosted the hype and expectations with fans now able to play with the toys eat the soup and wear the makeup for the next three months before its opening. There is so much weight of expectations on JJ Abrams far more than there was in 2009 and 2013 for Star Trek and its sequel Star Trek into Darkness the first film, he succeeded the second after the hype had disappeared many fans weren’t as happy. But Star Wars is another level of expectations even more than George Lucas had with the prequels in 1999 as it stars Han, Luke and Leia. Similar to the expectations with of 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was a poor sequel to 1989’s The Last Crusade.
Force Friday showed the real reason why Disney were so eager to acquire Lucasfilm as they got hold of the most lucrative part of the Star Wars empire which 20th Century Fox swapped in exchange of rights to Star Wars merchandising. In 1977 merchandising was very simple t-shirts hats and key-rings but in the years since has exploded into a multibillion dollar business far more lucrative with less upfront costs than making films. In the same way the Japanese electronics companies were eager to buy film studios in the 80s and 90s as software to their hardware Disney saw Marvel and Lucasfilm their characters and stories being the software to their theme parks also allowed them theme park rides.
Some analysts are predicting Disney could make more than $5 billion from in the next couple of years far more than they paid to buy Lucasfilm in 2012 and far more than all the new films and spin-offs will make but the key part for these new films is to introduce new characters and new worlds and adventures so they can create them for theme parks and merchandise
Recently many box office analysts have been predicting that The Force Awakens will open with over $615m globally in 3 days when it opens in December compared with Jurassic World $524m in 3 days that the same experts failed to predict, while Jurassic World played to generations of families The Force Awakens needs to break away from its fan-base to get anywhere near that amount.
After there were murmurings within Disney management last week they were disappointed with the performance of Avengers Age of Ultron this summer taking $1.4 billion compared with $1.5 billion for The Avengers in 2012 recently announcing Marvel President Kevin Feige now report to Disney chairman Alan Horn.
There is even more pressure on Star Wars The Force Awakens to become the biggest film ever.
This week Universal Pictures announced Jurassic World had crossed $1 billion international this was a few months after it was announced as the fastest film to take $1 billion globally.
To quote Sean Parker from The Social Network “A Million Dollars isn’t cool, you know what cool a billion dollars is”.
But now a billion dollars isn’t cool any more what is cool is two billion dollars and after the opening of Jurassic World and the expected opening for Star Wars The Force Awakens it’s what many expect the minimal it will take.
History is against Star Wars as The Phantom Menace was the biggest of all the films (not including inflation) just topped $1 billion in 1999 with Revenge of the Sith $848m and Attack of the Clones $649m. What The Force Awakens has going for it is since the last film was released ticket prices have increased by at least 40% since and will be available in 3D and lMAX which is now much more widely available than it was in 2005.
If The Force Awakens has any chance of beating Avatar it needs to attract non sci-fi fans and female audience which Avatar managed to do.
Star Wars The Phantom Menace opened in July 1999 with £9.5m (total £50.7m – 5.3x opening)
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones opened May 2002 with £11.3m (total £37.2m – 3.2x opening)
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith opened May 2005 with £14.3m (total £39.2m – 2.7x opening)
2015’s current biggest opening of the year Jurassic World £19.29m will be beaten in October with Spectre’s 7 day opening weekend. While Star Wars The Force Awakens can’t compete against Spectre’s opening weekend it will be interesting to see how the two compare with their official seven day openings as similar to Spectre The Force Awakens opens at the start of the school holidays.
Both films have strong British heritage as both might be financed by US studios but large amounts of the filming and post is done in the UK. They both don’t need premieres to build media coverage but Spectre has already announced its October 26th world premiere the same day as it opens it will likely be the recent home of James Bond the Royal Albert Hall but with that booked up at Christmas will be interesting to see where Disney hold Star Wars premiere, Disney have used the O2 previously and it will likely need a bigger location capacity than Leicester Square can now provide.
The Force Awakens will now open in the UK on Thursday giving it a 4 day opening which will likely see it opening with around £21m and £32m+ for the week will likely see it do similar to Jurassic World. Over three months before it release will likely do between 2.7x opening to 3x so roughly £56-£62m.
The rivalry between Sony and Disney will intensify with these two films are Sony will say Star Wars benefits from 3D surcharges while Disney will say Sony can’t include box office from Mon-Thurs in the film’s opening weekend. Skyfall took £37.2m from its 7 day opening Spectre as it opens on Monday will have a 7 day opening weekend. Spectre is expected to beat it with its 7 day opening weekend.