When George Lucas premiered ‘Star Wars’ (as it was then known) on the 25th of May 1977 he could scarcely have dreamed that his low-budget space opera would spawn a vast multimedia empire. The film was born out of George’s desire to recreate the feeling of serials like ‘Flash Gordon’ that had thrilled him as a young moviegoer.

Because the ‘Flash Gordon’ rights had proven elusive (after Star Wars’ success they were parlayed into one of the ultimate ‘guilty pleasure’ movies of the 1980s) Lucas forged his own myth. In interviews of the period he breezily alluded to a planned nine-part series but it’s more likely was bluffing, believing that the film would seem more appealing if he could give it the air of being connected to a wider mythos.

The film opened on about 2,100 screens in the US, grossing a shade over $36 million in its opening weekend. Respectable business for an $11,000,000 movie. Respectable enough, indeed, to finance ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ which is where the Star Wars franchise really began, with its generation-spanning story arc.

But Star Wars (or, as it was later dubbed, Episode IV: A New Hope) was by no means a certain success. The Tunisian desert shoot was fraught with technical problems and Lucas’ actors were less than impressed with the material they had to work with. Harrison Ford is famously quoted as having said "You can type this shit, George, but you sure can't say it."

BACKGROUND

• It was 30 years ago today...

• Their future in the stars

• That Frodo Skywalker ...somehow it rings a bell

• George Lucas and Luke Skywalker reunited

• Geeks baring rifts - Star Wars on the web

BACKGROUND

• Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

• 1977: The original Times review

• 1977: Alec Guinness talks about Star Wars

They’ve Star Wars in their eyes

We meet the hardcore Star Wars fans heading for London

Star Wars: The Exhibition

Behold Darth Vader in his glass case. So impressive are the costumes, which are fully finished, they are catwalk-perfect

Related Internet Links

• Star Wars 30th Anniversary Special

Thirty years and two major revisions later Lucas’ clunky dialogue endures, and the film’s influence continues to grow. Terminator and Titanic director James Cameron is reputed to have got into the movie business solely as a result of having seen Star Wars and even if that legend is too good to be true it’s undeniable that the success of the Star Wars movie and toy tie-in franchise has given rise to thirty years of sci-fi blockbusters, from Alien to James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar, few of which would have seen a green light were it not for the unstoppable force of Star Wars

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010