"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the long-awaited seventh installment in the hit franchise, opened to record-breaking numbers Thursday. Early reports say the movie took in $57 million at U.S. box offices on opening night alone. But, the series wasn't always the guaranteed blockbuster it is now.
With the latest film in the news, OPB's Think Out Loud spoke with Philip Myers, who was a senior executive at 20th Century Fox when the first Star Wars movie, "Star Wars: A New Hope," was made. He told us a few things he remembers about that time.
1. The first screening to 20th Century Fox executives had to take place at the Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios, where the complicated audio had been mixed.
“That's where (Lucas) did the sound because Fox did not have the capability to record audio for the film.”
2. Fox's Board of Directors had been very skeptical about the movie, and most of them were not convinced by that first screening.
“When they read the treatise of the outline of the film ... with the wookiees and all of the weird types in the film, a lot of them shook their head and said 'We spent $10 million on this? It's gone. What a waste of money!'”
3. Myers took his 10-year-old son to the screening. He may have been one of the first kids in the world to see the movie. After the screening, one of the senior executives asked Myers how he thought the film would do:
“Based on the number of 'wow's' I heard from my son, it's going to do very well.”
4. Prior to the opening, Fox was barely making a profit.
“When Star Wars was released and all the money started coming in … Fox went into an acquisition mode. The company acquired Aspen Skiing Corporation ... Pebble Beach Corporation ... also we got involved with Blackstone Mountain in BC.”