What if Star Wars had never been released or had flopped completely?

i meant inspired by this thread (both movies being 1977 megahits):

"Saturday Night Fever" was never made or released

would the so-called auteurist, "serious" trend in cinema of the the 70's have continued?

no. this was only ever a tiny fraction of hollywood's output.

i think it wd have had a greater effect on film merchandising and marketing and ppl's attitudes to film criticism than it would have done on film-making.

there was so much Star Wars merchandise; I remember that as much as the film itself! all the toys, stickers, t shirts etc etc! it opened ppl's eyes to just how much money could be made out of suckers kids from film merchie.

also iirc SW panned by critics as much as it was loved by the public, maybe leading to ppl reading film reviews with a little more scepticism than previously and using them as a guide to whether to go see a movie or not less than heretofore.

if star wars had never been released it would have had to be invented

I'd have become obsessed with something even nerdier, like Star Trek. (Shudder.)

Annie Hall would have won the 1978 Oscar for Best Picture. Oh, wait . . .

also iirc SW panned by critics as much as it was loved by the public,

Not really. TIME loved it, I think Kael liked it, the Washington Post loved it, Vincent Canby liked it . . .

i don't think critical reaction is that important to a movie of this size, and it could never have sustained the cult for so long.

For context:

http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1977.shtml

kid brother thread to what if hitler had been assassinated

What if Lucas had been assassinated after Star Wars but BEFORE Empire?

civilization hopelessly adrift

Fan fiction filmed as the real thing.

- more sex
- better BASIC programming
- Smallville as six-part film series
- famous viral video of fat kid pretending to be Action Jackson

no missile defense program ;_;

- less sex due to lack of Darth Vader helmets

no one to warn message board posters of potential traps

--less happy childhood for yrs truly

Close Encounters of The Third Kind would have taken SW's place as the film snobs love to hate (but probably love in secret). Or maybe it would have been Smokey and The Bandit...

"This is CNN" voiced by Fran Drescher

--no Millienium Falcon toy that brought yours truly great great joy, a joy that lasted until evil horrible stepfather threw out the spaceship during big move many states away, a move that scarred yrs truly psychically because of the loss of his childhood, a childhood symbolized by the abovementioned synecdochial plastic toy

http://www.takegreatpictures.com/content/images/citizen_kane_5.jpg

And don't forget, life today would probably have been more different, film-wise, if Heaven's Gate had never been made (or had been a big hit).

GR MUTHAFUCKIN OTM

- scene in Tommy Boy where Chris Farley speaks into desk fan and says "Luke, I am your father" replaced with scene where Chris Farley speaks into desk fan and says "I say thou art the murderer of the man Whose murderer thou pursuest. ... Dost know thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not, and all unwitting art a double foe to thine own kin, the living and the dead; aye and the dogging curse of mother and sire. ... This man whom thou hast sought to arrest With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch Who murdered Laius -- that man is here. He passes for an alien in the land, but soon shall prove a Theban, native born. And yet his fortune brings him little joy; for blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds, for purple robes, and leaning on his staff, to a strange land he soon shall grope his way."

Kevin Smith would only have enough material for short films.

is that 'citizen kane'?

xpost

World robbed of greatest Triumph the Insult Comic Dog sketch.

NO HOLIDAY SPECIAL

NO WOOKIE PORN

Never forget.

Wilhelm Scream revived exclusively in arthouse films.

- every episode of 30 Rock contains a reference to the 1978 classic Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe, starring George Segal

no metal bikini.

- Spaceballs is actually about testicles

what if i just drive my car right off the bridge??????

mythbusters did a show on that

if you strike this film from history now, it shall become far nerdier than you could possibly imagine

no bill murray singing "star wars, nothing but star wars, gimme those star wars, don't let them die" on SNL

I swear if I had three wishes, 'wipe Star Wars from pages of history' would be one of them.

... and you left out the best line, 'hope they don't bar wars'