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20th Century Fox expected it to tank. They thought they had a bomb on their hands. They had their release schedule arranged to allow Star Wars to burn away quickly during the summer, so their losses would be recouped in the fall with what they thought was going to be their big hit of the year - Damnation Alley!
I read they were banking on THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT. Did either of them do well?
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So I guess if Star Wars had bombed, we would have had a Damnation Alley complete soundtrack, if nothing else.
Oh, and there would have been a new Star Trek TV series in 1977. That was scuttled in favor of a movie, due to SW's success.
Both excellent points, David.
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After The Spy Who Loved Me, James Bond would have returned in For Your Eyes Only!
Another good point, Matt!
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2So I guess if Star Wars had bombed, we would have had a Damnation Alley complete soundtrack, if nothing else.
Oh, and there would have been a new Star Trek TV series in 1977. That was scuttled in favor of a movie, due to SW's success.
Which might still have been scored by Jerry Goldsmith (the pilot episode anyway -- Roddenberry had wanted Goldsmith for the original series in the 60s).
There would have been fewer space operas, though CE3K still might have spawned in an interest in sci-fi to some extent (so we'd still have been subjected to Project UFO, The Phoenix and The Powers of Matthew Star!). Spielberg would probably have still made E.T., Polergeist and perhaps collaborated with Lucas to make Raiders as well.
But given George Lucas' otherwise-scant contributions to popular culture, I wonder if movies would have been much different. But I suspect effects technology would be less fancy today, as ILM would have been disbanded had Star Wars bombed.
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I don't think JW would have gotten on The Franchise Treadmill had THE STAR WARS been a failure.
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Ralph Bakshi's War Wizards would've been a massive hit, causing the already failing Disney studio to go out of business, giving Don Bluth a reason to jump ship even earlier, and Mark Hamill may have pursued voice acting as a full time profession (considering his start on, you guessed it, War Wizards).
Also, Lucas would've still laughed his way to the bank regarding his "criss cross" percentage deal with Spielberg due to Close Encounters's grosses. Spielberg, on the other hand, not so pleased as punch.
Richard Donner said in the Omen DVD interview that the success of Omen actually funded Star Wars. So going back a bit w/o Jerry Goldsmith's masterpiece with Omen, Omen wouldn't have been successful. And if it hadn't been successful then there is no Star Wars either.
By that regard, there would've been no Omen without Satan, and then there would've been no Satan without God, so, as with everything else in life, this one's on the guy in the clouds... that's right, Lando Calrissian* is God.
Yeah, I was gonna say, "Superman" was going to happen one way or another. Two fortuitous and important creative decisions seem to make "Star Wars" more of an influence on "Superman" than it might actually have been -- John Barry as set designer and John Williams for music.
Or even weirder, John Williams as set designer and John Barry for music. It would be Starcrash before there was a Starcrash. Plus, given the domino effect resulting in Krull, The Revenge of Khan, and Battle Beyond the Stars, James Horner would've had a much more difficult ascendency.
*Coincidentally, there would've been no Matthew McCochoaughgouahogahuey without Lando Calrissian ("alright alright alright!").
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