He made American Graffiti first which was huge

>>64001113

They underestimated the dark side of human consumerism

he basically sold an empty box that just promised toys. The box nor anything in it bug a cardboard cutout, that's what he sold in 1977

>>64001113
Star Wars toys were the first to ever really take off like that. There was absolutely no genius involved, just bald ass luck.

and THX 1138 which was and still is fucking awesome.

If anything he was Sam Raimi.

Made a couple of good movies on minimal budget who the studio took a calculated risk on to their great benefit.

They didn't have much faith in it.

>>64001166

bug -but

>>64001175
>Star Wars toys were the first to ever really take off like that.

people had TV tie in toys forever. Kids were dressing up in Davey Crockett Hats, shooting Roy Rodgers Red Rider BB Guns or playing Lone Ranger with their revolver and mask sets since the 1950s.

>>64001175

>no genius involved

>Argues specifically for that thing when nobody believed

>Knocked it out of the park so hard he might as well had foresight as a force ability

Francis Ford saw the THX short film and helped him make it into a feature.

Francis Ford Coppola is pretty much the man responsible for his success as a filmmaker.

From what I know Star Wars only happened because he was refused the rights to direct a film about his favorite television show, Flash Gordon. He then decided to make his "own flash gordon".

Star Wars was plagued with production problems though, and many studios passed on the script. Even the studio that picked it up didn't have much faith in it.

>>64001223
Nobody believed in it except fox[literally the last major studio to not show him the door btw). He was lucky. No other studio would touch that shit with a ten foot pole

>>64001113
American Graffiti was a surprise hit and made a lot of money.

Studios had some respect for film makers back then if they could make money. They'd give them the creative control.

They gave him the merchandising rights because they didn't realise Star Wars' potential.

>>64001267
You say that like Lucas wasn't proved right. It was a passion project.

>>64001265
Didn't Brian De Palma say it was the worst movie he'd ever seen?

Dateline has an entire interview with Lucas' lawyer about the deal. Everyone involved says it's one of those one off sort of things that will never happen again.. It's mostly due to timing and of course a different over all hollywood biz model back in the late 70s. Now merch is the big thing for action films, it was unheard of back in the day.

http://deadline.com/2015/12/star-wars-franchise-george-lucas-historic-rights-deal-tom-pollock-1201669419/

>>64001113
"The Force Awakens" was really good. :-)

>>64001698
that was the rough cut, with no score, before special FX were added. it had shots from old WW2 dogfighting movies in place of the X-wing exteriors in the battle towards the end, and was much longer than the final edit.

Brian De Palma said it was awful in a screening when Lucas showed it to his director friends. Lucas developing a "my way or the highway" attitude actually makes sense in retrospect because he'd made the most successful modern film despite everyone thinking it was awful the whole way through the process. even the actors thought they were in a bad movie.

>>64001796
I agree. It had some flaws, but all movies do really and it didn't really ruin my enjoyment. I'll definitely be going to see it again before it's out of the cinema.

he outjewed the jews

he sold star wars for too little though desu

>>64001113
American Graffiti was the best movie he's ever done and it was box office hit.