If the title of this post makes your heart race and your mind reel back to the time when you first saw those yellow-colored lines slant away against a starry background, then the latest news about the greatest movie saga would have made you jump off your seat too. Star Wars.. the great Star Wars series is coming back on the big screen -- in 3D!! What started off as a tale about a young Jedi living on the planet Tatooine, went on to become on of the greates movies series ever in the history of film-making. Star Wars is and will always be more than just a movie series though. It is the tale of a different galaxy altogether, of different species, of a war of a different kind...
Released on May 25, 1977, Star Wars: A New Hope paved the path for the beginning of the original trilogy. The movie became an instant hit as words like 'Jedi' and 'Sith' formed part of the common man's language. The movie easily
broke the previous highest earnings at the US box-office held by Spielberg's Jaws and went on to earn a staggering $461 million (including earnings from subsequent re-releases). The movie currently stands at #4 on the all-time US box-office list. The Force remained with the series as the sequels that followed, viz. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in 1983, earned $290 million and $309 million respectively. As compared to the production budgets that movies nowadays start off with, the budgets that George Lucas and his team worked with appear peanuts - $66.5 million was the combined budget on which the entire trilogy was made!
16 years after the final battle between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker had concluded, George Lucas began another trilogy describing the beginnings of
the world's most popular villain - Darth Vader. In 1999, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released amongst huge expectations and the movie was a phenomenal success. It earned $431 million in US (all-time #7) and grossed $924 million in worldwide revenues, the latter being the highest earnings amongst the Star Wars movies. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones released in 2002 and fell short in comparison earning $311 million in US. But the final movie of this amazing adventure, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, released in 2005, capped off a wonderful journey, grossing $380 million in US (all-time #12) and $849 million worldwide. The Star Wars saga now stands as the third-biggest movie series ever, only after James Bond and Harry Potter series!
And this does not end here. The series that has seen number of spin-offs into novels, animated series, theme parks, will be returning back to the big screen. In late September, it was annouced that the entire series would be returning in 3D. The experience would kick-off in chronological order this time, starting with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace that is slated for an early-2012 release. The other movies would follow, one each year. The 3D technology itself has grown by leaps and bounds over the years and this would surely make the 'new' Star Wars viewing an "outworldy experience"! May the Force be with You...
No comments:
Post a Comment