Did the 1977 Star Wars movie pimp out the characters before or after

[Deja Q]

it was a hit?

The Revenge of the Sick product tie-in adverts are now in full-swing. :puke:

[Lorien]

1. After

it wasn't expected to be a hit. I still have my Burger King collectable Star Wars posters, lol! (I was 12 at the time).

[lenidog]

2. It wasn't after till they had developed the most successful

movie marketing machine in history. I mean everyone is getting in on the act. Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet you name it.

[dbonds]

3. Merchandising was invented by Lucas after the success of Star Wars.

It wasn't expected to be big. Not that many sci-fi movies did well before then.

[HeeBGBz]

4. I knew little about Star Wars when I saw it

Don't remember seeing much stuff with the original.

[AmyDeLune]

5. 20th Century Fox thought it would be a dog

so when Lucas wanted the merchandising rights, they let him have them. I'm sure someone's head rolled for that decision. :D

On a side note, the artist (one of the Hildebrandt brothers) who did the original movie poster was only supplied with head shots of the main human cast and a few full stills of the Droids and aliens to use as reference material. When he asked for better photos to do a more accurate job with he was told that it didn't matter as the film would only be playing in theatres for 2 weeks, tops. ;)