# When will Star Wars no longer be the scifi film benchmark? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995 "2013-04-18T01:57:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995/21 "2013-04-21T21:39:13Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > We now take it for granted that a successful family movie will spawn books, toys, video games, straight-to-video shorts and sequels, tie-in Crayola stuff, and all that crap, but before Star Wars that had never happened. We now take it for granted that any successful fiction franchise has a “canon,” a universe of history, rules, characterizations and themes that are spelled out not only in the movies but also in the other stories in other media, usually with some sort of semi-official pyramid of authenticity - but that didn’t happen before Star Wars (or if it did it was very small niche stuff.) I disagree. Within my lifetime, I can recall the same reaction to James Bond circa 1964/65. That series of movies spawned numerous action figures, toys, games, bubble-gum cards, rip-offs, spin-offs, etc. Likewise, a Bond canon was written that served as the anchor for numerous sequels. What made Star Wars different was that the creators were able to monetize the auxiliary product to an unprecedented extent. In the same time frame and in a broader entertainment sense, The Beatles had an outrageous amount of associated product. Between they and 007, they raised an entire country out of the post-war doldrums via merchandising and impact upon popular culture. Star Wars was a great movie but nerds have inflated it’s importance among the general public. I reckon that Jaws and The Exorcist were just as memorable to the movie-going public of the era, and that among non-SciFi fans, Jaws is regarded as a better movie. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995/22 "2013-04-21T22:10:53Z")
The memorability to the audience is not the point. Star Wars is important for what it did to the perspective of the _producers_. Every single person in the movie business will tell you that the period leading up to Star Wars was a golden age in American film because movie producers were taking risks on small, inexpensive movies in exchange for small returns. Star Wars ushered in the era that required that for a movie to be made at all by major studios, it had to be a potential blockbuster. Before, a small movie was fine so long as it was profitable. After, profitability wasn’t good enough. Indeed, producers were willing to risk huge losses just to chase a potential blockbuster. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995/23 "2013-04-21T23:41:19Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s NOT about moviemaking skill or innovation - which is not a shot against Star Wars, which is an excellent film and was brilliantly innovative. But as others have pointed out, movies since have set equally impressive benchmarks. In terms of influence on moviemarking, the most influential film since Star Wars is - by a wide margin, and I do not believe there is any reasonable argument against this - “Toy Story.” No contest. But nobody asks what the next Toy Story’s gonna be, because while it changed the movie industry in terms of MOVIES, in terms of its cultural impact, in terms of drawing in new media, it just did the same things Star Wars did. > > So when you ask what the next Star Wars is, you’ve got to ask; what cultural penetration, what media barriers, what commercial milestones are yet to be surpassed? Toy Story would be the most influential film since Star Wars because it did what Star Wars did but to a much greater degree in terms of stepping outside the filmmaking industry itself, is that what you mean? Why would you say this is more the case for Toy Story than Jurassic Park or The Matrix? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995/24 "2013-04-22T02:23:42Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Toy Story would be the most influential film since Star Wars because it did what Star Wars did but to a much greater degree in terms of stepping outside the filmmaking industry itself, is that what you mean? No. Toy Story is not the influence Star Wars was. However, it is the most influential film since Star Wars, because it ushered in _the single biggest change since then_; the prominence of computer-animated films, which are now practically a genre until themselves and built one of the industry’s great studios. Computer-animated films are now being pumped out with such abandon that we forget what a revolutionary idea “Toy Story” was in 1995. An entirely computer-animated film? Some thought the idea insane. Well, now they’re pumping them out by the truckload, and while some are forgettable dreck, it’s also resulted in a string of movies of sensational quality. Had Pixar not had the guts (and the financial necessity) to give it a shot, we might not have had Rango, WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Ratatouille, and the list goes on - or if we had, it would have been delayed years, and the expectation of genuine quality, which was set by Toy Story, might not have taken hold so early. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995/25 "2013-04-22T03:00:28Z")
Let’s not forget that there probably would never have been a Pixar if not for _Star Wars_ and ILM. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995/26 "2013-04-22T03:55:19Z")
Here’s [an interesting article](http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/04/how-pixar-used-moores-law-to-predict-the-future/) about Pixar waiting (and waiting) until computer power was capable of making a CG feature film. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-star-wars-no-longer-be-the-scifi-film-benchmark/655995.md?page=1)