Star Wars turning 35

So this week marks the anniversary of a movie series that has truly defined the way we watch movies today and made a lasting impact on a whole generation. This movie is Star Wars and on May 25^th it will be turning 35 years old so lets take a look back at what this movie has done for itself and the industry.

First off lets look at the numbers for this astronomically big series. With six movies in continuity making them close to 4.3 billion in box office just makes the tip of the iceberg because if there is one thing George Lucas knows the meaning of merchandise and the money it can bring in with loads of DvD, video game, book and Toy sales bringing in money and making the total gross revenue of Star Wars as of this March $27 billion.

This movie series is not all about the numbers though it truly changed the way we make films today with a brand new look on the way Sci-Fi space movies were made. Lucas not only brought us spaceships flying without strings and making a new type of weapon that everyone knows and loves, the lightsaber. But he came up with ways to put this all together with his new nonlinear editing systems which eventually brought avid into use which is one of the powerhouses of editing to this day.

Now this movie wouldn’t mean that much since plenty of movies have come and gone that bring new technology to the scene but this movie has a unique staying power that makes it large part of the culture for a generation. This not only means huge fans going to conventions devoted to the worlds of the Star Wars Universe but you can go and talk to anyone about Star Wars and they don’t even need to have seen the movie to know the names Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and the phrase “Luke I am your father.”

Now this is all great and I guess the man to thank for bringing this all together is George Lucas himself and while anyone’s thanks for this would seem nice I think his 3.6 Billion net worth should be thanks enough for him.