What would pop culture and entertainment be like if Star Wars flopped?

[Caravels of Portugal]

In the OTL, Star Wars was a critical and commercial success despite skepticism from film critics and executives that science fiction wasn't marketable. It ushered in a new wave of science fiction films and revolutionized entertainment by emphasizing special effects spectacle, film merchandising and appealing to an ignored segment of the filmgoing audience in the 1970s - kids. The success of the film is also blamed for ending the New Hollywood era, a period where films were made by auteurs and aimed squarely at the adult audiences.

Suppose in another timeline, Star Wars was a critical and commercial flop because something went wrong during film production, bad marketing, and George Lucas suffering a plethora of personal issues and disasters. The failure of the film causes science fiction and fantasy to remain in B-movie bins while the New Hollywood era remains in full force as a movement. Special effects technology remains underdeveloped because of the closure of Industrial Light and Magic. Blaxploitation would still remain financially reliable because of the low budgets and low-cost African-American actors. The idea of merchandising films would be completely unknown and hence the idea of toy-based films and animated series would be non-existent.

What do you think of that?

 

[Theoretical_TJ]

Science fiction continues to be a place for social commentary a la Metropolis, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Soylent Green, and Star Trek.

Eventually, you’ll get a blockbuster of some kind due to special effects that blows the door open similar to what Star Wars did.

 

[ejpsan]

The concept of the summer blockbuster movies is put back a few years as along with "Jaws" opening up two years earlier the idea of having major films debuted in the summer was a relatively new one, before that summer movies were basically Disney movies, cheap exploitation movies, and major films that opened up on limited screens during the winter goes out to wider releases.
It also may slow down the multiplex movie theater in which a single film could be shown on more than one screen which allowed for more people to see a hit film in a shorter time period.
I remembered when "Star Wars" opened up in 1977 it was only on about something less than 100 screens in North America and it stayed in many theaters for over a year compared to "The Last Skywalker" which opened up on over 4,000 screens and stayed in the theaters for about 14 weeks before going out to home sales.

 

[Nivek]

Science fiction continues to be a place for social commentary a la Metropolis, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Soylent Green, and Star Trek.

Eventually, you’ll get a blockbuster of some kind due to special effects that blows the door open similar to what Star Wars did.

This, less Hero Journey and more Close Encounters style Sci-fi, the same Trek styled one too

 

[Mitchell Hundred]

Science fiction continues to be a place for social commentary a la Metropolis, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Soylent Green, and Star Trek.

Eventually, you’ll get a blockbuster of some kind due to special effects that blows the door open similar to what Star Wars did.

Didn't the Star Trek franchise get its second life due to the success of Star Wars? which motivated the motion picture reunion of the original 60s cast into what became a movie franchise and the spin off series.

If not for the movie and its sequels would the relatively short lived Star Trek TV series have had that much impact?

 

[Nivek]

Didn't the Star Trek franchise get its second life due to the success of Star Wars? which motivated the motion picture reunion of the original 60s cast into what became a movie franchise and the spin off series.

I think the sucess of close encounter of third kind is going to be the drive for a trek revival, as that was closer to the style of Sci-Fi than Star wars

 

[overoceans]

less Hero Journey

Bill Moyers doesn't interview Joseph Campbell at Skywalker Ranch in the mid-80s, which means I don't watch that show in my university children's lit class later that decade.

Not sure what this does to the profile of Dr. Campbell, since I don't know how famous he was before those interviews were shown on TV. If they played a key role in the mainstreaming of his ideas, it might mean Jungianism doesn't enjoy as much of a vogue(eg. among religious feminists) that it did in the early 90s.

 

[xerex]

The concept of the summer blockbuster movies is put back a few years as along with "Jaws" opening up two years earlier the idea of having major films debuted in the summer was a relatively new one, before that summer movies were basically Disney movies, cheap exploitation movies, and major films that opened up on limited screens during the winter goes out to wider releases.

Following on this


No Star Wars. Does Raiders of the Lost Ark still happen ? If it does happen is it more adult oriented and less kid friendly. Without both Indy and Star Wars the whole four quadrant family friendly blockbuster that was ubiquitous in the 80s and 90s gets heavily delayed

 

[A Piece of History]

Didn't the Star Trek franchise get its second life due to the success of Star Wars? which motivated the motion picture reunion of the original 60s cast into what became a movie franchise and the spin off series.

If not for the movie and its sequels would the relatively short lived Star Trek TV series have had that much impact?

I think the sucess of close encounter of third kind is going to be the drive for a trek revival, as that was closer to the style of Sci-Fi than Star wars

It should be remembered that the only reason Paramount took a second look at Star Trek in the 1970s was because of it's popularity in syndication. I think if Phase II took off, it'd probably enjoy greater success than it's predecessor, but the franchise would look somewhat different. For example, in Phase II, the Klingons were supposed to have a Japan-style aesthetic to them, much like how the Romulans in The Original Series had that Roman aesthetic.

Star Trek: Phase II

Star Trek: Phase II, also known by its official title Star Trek II (not to be confused with the earlier 1975-1976 revitalization attempts bearing the same title), was planned to be the first live-action spin-off television series of Star Trek: The Original Series. While ultimately not realized...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

 

[Nivek]

the Klingons were supposed to have a Japan-style

Why japan? for me Klingons always were like Huns in space

 

[Caravels of Portugal]

No Star Wars. Does Raiders of the Lost Ark still happen ? If it does happen is it more adult oriented and less kid friendly. Without both Indy and Star Wars the whole four quadrant family friendly blockbuster that was ubiquitous in the 80s and 90s gets heavily delayed

The Raiders of the Lost Ark was conjured by George Lucas during 1973 as The Adventures of Indiana Smith. Like Star Wars, it was a homage to the old adventure film serials of his childhood. During the opening weekend of Star Wars, George Lucas met up with Steven Spielberg in Maui. Spielberg told Lucas that he was interested in making a James Bond movie, but Lucas replied that he had a better idea that this, which was Indiana Jones. Without the financial success of Star Wars, Indiana Jones wouldn't have existed in the first place.

On the other hand, blockbuster movies would be dominated by horror-thriller films as Jaws, The Omen and The Exorcist would set an example for mass-appeal films in Hollywood. Executives in the ATL would've believed that adult audiences are interested in very intense films with horrific spectacles. The films Alien, The Terminator and The Thing (1982) would still happen, albeit occurring later because of Jaws raising the requirement for horrific spectacle.

 

[A Piece of History]

Why japan? for me Klingons always were like Huns in space

Well, in The Original Series, Kirk describes the Klingons as a 'military dictatorship'. The Klingons as depicted in TNG, DS9, Enterprise and even Discovery don't fit that description. The Tokugawa Shogunate in our world was in effect, a military dictatorship, so it fits.

If you want a military dictatorship in Star Trek canon, the Cardassians best suit the definition. The Klingons, while they have a warrior culture in canon, don't officially allow the Klingon Defence Force to dictate Imperial policy.

 

[Waldo]

The enormous success of Star Wars merchandising and toys led many companies to try to replicate it for themselves. There was a big explosion of cartoons in 80s that were primarily meant to market toys like G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers, etc. Without Star Wars and its toyline the whole toy and cartoon landscape of the 80s and onwards is likely different.

The movie Alien was already in the works before Star Wars was released but the success of Star Wars led to Alien getting a big budget increase. Without Star Wars we get a lower budget alien which is probably not as good. Maybe a worse Alien never has the same pop culture impact or gets any sequels. Just off the top of my head Alien in OTL inspired the Brood in Marvel comics, the Pizza Monsters in Ninja Turtles, the Tyranids in Warhammer (which themselves inspired the Zerg in Starcraft).

Without Star Wars repopularizing space opera there is no Battlestar Galactica, no Buck Rodgers revival, no 1980 Flash Gordon movie, no 1984 Dune movie.

 

[marathag]

The enormous success of Star Wars merchandising and toys led many companies to try to replicate it for themselves. There was a big explosion of cartoons in 80s that were primarily meant to market toys like G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers, etc. Without Star Wars and its toyline the whole toy and cartoon landscape of the 80s and onwards is likely different.

The trailblazer for Film merchandising was the _Planet of the Apes_ series.
So that was going to be a thing, even with _Star Wars_a flop

 

[Caravels of Portugal]

Without Star Wars we get a lower budget alien which is probably not as good.

It's possible for a low-budget version Alien to be good, but it would be more difficult. It would be more like a cerebral, subdued version of The Thing (1982) with elements of John Carpenter's Halloween.

A positive effect of Star Wars being a commercial and critical failure would allow blaxploitation films to evolve into an Black Hollywood Renaissance, allowing a plethora of auteur films made by African-American filmmakers and performers with a wide variety of genres. These films would be backed by major studios and would appeal to a wide audience alongside cerebral science fiction films and spectacle-driven horror-thriller films.
To elaborate, the success of Star Wars had proved Hollywood that sci-fi/fantasy films could earn a lot of money coupled with the failures of big-budget, studio-backed blaxploitation films such as The Wiz and Car Wash - causing a drought of African-American actors in starring roles from 1978 to 1992, until Will Smith came along and allowed African-American actors to star in leading roles.

 

[pompejus]

It should be remembered that the only reason Paramount took a second look at Star Trek in the 1970s was because of it's popularity in syndication. I think if Phase II took off, it'd probably enjoy greater success than it's predecessor,

Without Star Wars, star trek probably remains a television show instead of becoming a movie franchise too.

And yes, it will be unrecognisable, especialy with TNG, which had as much influence on the star trek franchise as TOS had. And without the movies and with phase 2 there will be no TNG (and thus no Borg, no Ferengi, no Cardassians, no Betazoid, no Bajorans, no Maquis, no Dominion, no etc and very different Klingons and Romulans)

 

[Paradoxer]

In the OTL, Star Wars was a critical and commercial success despite skepticism from film critics and executives that science fiction wasn't marketable. It ushered in a new wave of science fiction films and revolutionized entertainment by emphasizing special effects spectacle, film merchandising and appealing to an ignored segment of the filmgoing audience in the 1970s - kids. The success of the film is also blamed for ending the New Hollywood era, a period where films were made by auteurs and aimed squarely at the adult audiences.

Suppose in another timeline, Star Wars was a critical and commercial flop because something went wrong during film production, bad marketing, and George Lucas suffering a plethora of personal issues and disasters. The failure of the film causes science fiction and fantasy to remain in B-movie bins while the New Hollywood era remains in full force as a movement. Special effects technology remains underdeveloped because of the closure of Industrial Light and Magic. Blaxploitation would still remain financially reliable because of the low budgets and low-cost African-American actors. The idea of merchandising films would be completely unknown and hence the idea of toy-based films and animated series would be non-existent.

What do you think of that?

Syfy wise or anything related to space will definitely take and base things off Star Trek more so now who will or might be still unchallenged king in that genre.

Don’t get me wrong. I Like both franchises but Star Trek staying unchallenged precedent going to make space movies more utopian in setting(outside of main conflict or issue), sometimes preachy or insistence upon itself, and have that hippie dippy space UN vibe. Also more drama and politics.

Star Wars in comparison has engaging and serious story too but more straightforward and simple with much more action. Star Trek tries too be to philosophical at times. Star Wars does not. You don’t have Picard or Spark going into long deep tangents about moral around events of things.

In Star Wars it’s more action then words while moral and logic is simple to understand but still easy for some to screw up(like Ankin or fallen Jedi turned Sith). There not as much “nuance”. It’s more just hope and faith(the force. Also in title).

 

[A Piece of History]

Without Star Wars, star trek probably remains a television show instead of becoming a movie franchise too.

So, basically an American Doctor Who?

And yes, it will be unrecognisable, especialy with TNG, which had as much influence on the star trek franchise as TOS had. And without the movies and with phase 2 there will be no TNG (and thus no Borg, no Ferengi, no Cardassians, no Betazoid, no Bajorans, no Maquis, no Dominion, no etc and very different Klingons and Romulans)

I feel like we could get a version of the Ferengi somewhere. The Ferengi were Rodenberry's idea (huge codpieces not included in the final product, unfortunately).

That actually makes me think that without it becoming a movie franchise, Rodenberry remains at the helm of the franchise. He got shuffled off by Paramount when The Motion Picture flopped and if I recall correctly, he had minimal influence on TNG after the first couple of seasons. This is bad news for the franchise since Rodenberry prioritized his nauseating utopian ideas over any potential story threads that would conflict with it. Deep Space 9 was the last Star Trek product he had any input on just before he died and i don't think he would've liked the Dominion War. He hated the Wrath of Khan too.

 

[Gillan1220]

Sci-fi would continue nonetheless. The butterflies here would be no prequel films, LEGO sets based on Star Wars, books, novels, comics, and the Clone Wars series.

 

[X_X]

Snip

Lucas actually considered doing a cheap sequel if the film underperformed. Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye was going to be the blueprint. That would be a fascinating POD in of itself.