WI Star Wars Episode I Made All the Money

[John Fredrick Parker]

Looking to try and picture how my ongoing TL will develop, so without giving away too much (I think), I'd like to ask Supposing Titanic got its summer release, so that it still did well, but not as well as OTL; then in 1999, Episode I of Star Wars (which is different from OTL, but I'd like to stay away from the details of that here) proceeding to do slightly better at the box office than OTL (half a billion initial domestic, and over a billion internationally); and to top it off, Lord of the Rings (due to changes in production) does not do nearly as well as OTL. The cumulative effect of all this is that the new Star Wars installment remains the highest grossing film of all time (not adjusted for inflation), and continues to hold this record for about a decade (at least). Another way of looking at this alternate success story -- the new installment TTL, has the second highest number of domestic ticket sales since... the original.

So -- without getting too much into the matter of TTL version and its quality (I'm trying to keep somethings for the proper TL, after all) -- how would pop culture (or whatever else you can think of) be affected specifically by having Star Wars remaining king of the Box Office?

*this is a little more narrow than another question I asked awhile back

 

[e of pi]

I think the problem is you're asking a lot. The original movie...sucked. It's not like it lacked promotion or anything, it was just bad. And without describing how you fix that, projecting the consequences are hard. If it's because George miraculously learns how to collaborate and take advice in spite of his ego, then that'll effect what comes next. If it's because George is hit by a car and the movie if made by somebody else, then that's a totally different effect. If it's because they...I don't know, pay off every critic in the US with $2000 in small unmarked bills for the first week, then that's something else. I mean...they make more prequels, and people are a bit less disappointed. Without more details, I'm not sure what else I can say that'll fit with what you're planning.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

If it's because George miraculously learns how to collaborate and take advice in spite of his ego, then that'll effect what comes next.

Fortunately, I'm not really giving away anything by confirming that this is essentially what happens -- specifically, that he brings in Lawrence Kasdan to script doctor his first draft back in 1996. Now anything else I tell you would be giving future plans away, but if that helps...

 

[Time slip]

With a more successful Star Wars Episode I and a less successful Lord of the Rings, you might see less adaptions of high fantasy works being put into production by the studios. If Lord of the Rings is a flop (and is released around the same time as the awful Dungeons & Dragons movie) you might see the studios avoiding fantasy adaptions for a while (so possibly no Chronicles of Narnia or His Dark Materials, though I can see Harry Potter getting adapted anyway due to its popularity at the time).

At the same time, these same studios, looking at Episode I's box office, might green-light more science fiction projects than in OTL. It might be worthwhile to research science fiction movies that almost but didn't get made over the last decade or so.

 

[DStecks]

Avatar might be considerably different; if James Cameron isn't in the position of having made the highest-grossing film ever, he might have more difficulty financing his 3-hour long sci-fi epic, which is also an original intellectual property with no pre-existing fanbase.

Titanic was a massive gamble, it getting beaten to the number 1 of all time position probably has greater ramifications than which particular film beat it.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

I think the problem is you're asking a lot. The original movie...sucked. It's not like it lacked promotion or anything, it was just bad. And without describing how you fix that, projecting the consequences are hard. If it's because George miraculously learns how to collaborate and take advice in spite of his ego, then that'll effect what comes next. If it's because George is hit by a car and the movie if made by somebody else, then that's a totally different effect. If it's because they...I don't know, pay off every critic in the US with $2000 in small unmarked bills for the first week, then that's something else. I mean...they make more prequels, and people are a bit less disappointed. Without more details, I'm not sure what else I can say that'll fit with what you're planning.

What he said. Ya, you're planning to have someone script doctor it. I really doubt that's enough. You dont need a medical doctor, you need dr frankenstein or baron samedi to bring life from the dead.

Did i mention #1 sucked?

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

Well, one thing I should mention here is that I'm only having Episode I do slightly better than OTL -- 16% better domestically, similar growth internationally, taking the initial global gross from $924 million to over a billion. So as long as you allow the basic story can be improved (yeah, a stretch I know ) I wouldn't be too shocked by TTL's numbers.

With a more successful Star Wars Episode I and a less successful Lord of the Rings, you might see less adaptions of high fantasy works being put into production by the studios...

At the same time, these same studios, looking at Episode I's box office, might green-light more science fiction projects than in OTL. It might be worthwhile to research science fiction movies that almost but didn't get made over the last decade or so.

Good idea, I'll look into that.

Avatar might be considerably different...

Or just doesn't get made; AAR, that's still years down the line...