Release Year: 1977

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Director: George Lucas

Writer: George Lucas

Stars: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill

Jedi, lightsabers, Wookiees, Darth Vader, Tatooine, Mos Eisley—does this list have any meaning to you beyond being a jumble of nonsense words? Chances are it does, and the reason why can be found a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,

Star Wars has so heavily influenced pop culture that it needs no introduction. The film's imagery has become so pervasive that most people will recognize a Wookie as easily as they do an alligator. 

Wait a sec—do alligators have the U- or V-shaped jaws?

Make that "most people will recognize a Wookie more easily than they do an alligator."

Alligators and Wookiees aside, it can be hard to believe today that Star Wars was a gamble, a film that bucked many of the Hollywood trends of its day. In the 1970s, popular movies featured morally ambiguous anti-heroes in dark gritty worlds (think Taxi Driver and The Godfather) but director and screenwriter George Lucas chose to focus on a classic tale about good, evil, and... lightsabers.

His hero (and by now our hero) is Luke Skywalker, a naïve boy living on the remote planet of Tatooine. After his family is killed by the evil Empire, Luke decides to help an aging warrior, Obi-Wan Kenobi, return two droids to the rebels. Luke's adventures lead him to gather a ragtag group of allies, battle an evil Empire, and rescue Princess Leia, a path that will lead him to his destiny as a Jedi knight.

Even though this back-to-basics storytelling seems like the furthest thing from a risk ever, it was totally out of left field in the American cinemascape. As journalist Bill Moyers notes:

Timing is everything in art. You bring out Star Wars too early and it's Buck Rogers; you bring it out too late and it doesn't fit our imagination. You bring it out just as the war in Vietnam is ending when America feels uncertain of itself and the old stories have died, and you bring it out at that time and suddenly it's a new game. Also, it's a lot of fun to watch Star Wars. (Source)

Star Wars: A New Hope hit theaters in 1977, which was perfect timing: everyone stopped disco-ing for two hours and took their velour jumpsuits to the movie theater. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1978 and took home eight of the little gold men, including Best Editing, Sound, and Special Effects. (It did lose Best Picture to Annie Hall—shucks.)

The Jedi-love spread well beyond Hollywood. The film was a watershed moment in pop culture, spawning throngs of fans who wanted to buy anything with Star Wars on it: toys, t-shirts, records, pillows, perfumes, bathrobes, and even cookbooks—although what in Star Wars looks tasty, exactly? Aunt Beru's blue milk?

The hype train didn't stop there. Star Wars created a franchise Empire. With Lucas at the helm, the sci-fi film spawned seven sequels—did you think we forgot about The Clone Wars?—as well as a rich universe of lore-expanding books, comics, TV shows, and video games.

In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilms Ltd and the rights to Star Wars and announced plans to release one Star Wars movie every year for the foreseeable future, shifting the focus to a cinematic universe similar to Marvel's.

But it all—and we're including all of Harrison Ford's cinematic career in "it all"—started with a huge gamble that resulted in one, single sci-fi film.

Imagine a world without Star Wars.

No, but really. Remove from your memory every time you've heard "May the force be with you," and every time you tried to use Jedi mind tricks on your parents when they asked you to do your chores. (We can't have been the only nerdy preteen that attempted ye olde "These are not the droids you're looking for.")

Now remove every Star Wars reference in music—from Justin Bieber to Eminem to Kanye to Madonna to Queen. Now remove every Star Wars reference in TV shows and movies—from Friends to 30 Rock to The Big Bang Theory to Live Free and Die Hard to Superbad to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Those are just the trivial ways that Star Wars has changed, if not the galaxy, at least the world.

The impact of this one little movie is truly astronomical (space pun!). It can be argued that Star Wars has changed the moviemaking industry more than any other film. Its success changed how films were produced, how they were marketed, and how studios decided what movies to make.

Along with Jaws, Star Wars was one of the first summer blockbusters. In addition to referring to when a film drops, the term has become a genre in-and-of-itself, defining large, spectacle-driven films designed as money-making tent-poles for their respective studios.

However, Star Wars' greatest windfall came with its treatment of merchandising. During contact negotiations, Lucas deferred a $500,000 directing fee in return for the licensing and merchandising rights. Back in the day, neither was considered very valuable, so 20th Century Fox agreed to the deal. In the words of one pretty woman: big mistake. Huge.

Counting all seven movies, Star Wars has brought in $4.3 billion worth of revenue, but the toy sales alone have amassed $12 billion. This figure doesn't include books, comics, video games, clothing, pencils, buttons, cereal, fruit snacks—the list goes on. As mentioned in the 1977 Star Wars documentary, "Star Wars has spawned more star wares than anyone can count. It has become an inescapable phenomenon" (source).

With dollar signs in their eyes, studio execs have been chasing the Star Wars formula ever since. They greenlight more and more movies telling simple tales with characters displaying easily identifiable character traits. These blockbusters are action packed, special effects driven spectacles of escapism—but most importantly, they're the bedrock for huge merchandising campaigns.

Batman, The Lion King, Jurassic Park, the Marvel Cinematic universe, all have spawned a cavalcade of merchandise, in some cases when it was completely inappropriate. Robocop (1987) features a man whose skin melts from toxic waste before being violently run down by the hero—what's that doing with a line of toys and children's clothing?!

The next time you call someone a "young padawan," listen to Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize," binge-watch Buffy, buy an Iron Man action figure for your nephew or—hey—walk into the movie theater to escape the midsummer heat with some highly entertaining CGI-infused movie goodness, remember to mentally thank Star Wars.