Image from wikipedia.org
It is pretty safe to say just about everyone in the United States, and a good portion of people around the world have at least heard of, if not seen, the very popular Star Wars movies. Is it really possible for one movie to change society drastically? Well apparently it is. Time Magazine wrote a great article with several examples of how the Star Wars Movies influenced society. According to Time Magazine Star Wars had influence on the toy, video game, and theme park industries.
Examples of the influence Star Wars had on society can be seen all around. Take for instance the toys fast food industries provide in kid’s meals, before the popular film came out the hit toy every child wanted was the famous Mickey Mouse watch. After the film hit center stage “every kid has to have Star Wars action figures, lightsabers, key chains, books, etc. Lucas all but created the market for collectibles. (time.com)”
Additionally, video games say a huge change after this movie came out. Before the movie there want much to video games, with games like pong, and Tetris. However, after Star Wars “The video-arcade biz booms with Star Wars games and rip-offs, and the huge home-video market is full of space themes. (time.com)”
Thirdly, changes to popular theme parks were seen as well. Coming from Time Magazine, before the film many Disney rides, were slow and simple. After the film a whole new universe of rides opened up. Space Mountain was brought to life, and it was the start of a new revolution of making popular films into them park rides.
So what? What does all of this information mean? Well this information proves just how impactful one movie, or a series of movies can be. These changes I mentioned are just a few of the many influences Star Wars had on our society. Therefore, I just it is definitely safe to say, if the movie is done and produced correctly, it is possible that movie could potentially impact society in more ways then expected.
Now what? Just think for a moment of how this movie has impacted you? Some of you may not have even seen the movie, but yet you still know who the characters are, what the overall idea of the movie is, and may even know a few quotes from the movie because 30 years later it is still so heavily talked about. For others, this may be one of your favorite all time movies and you were highly influenced by the making of this movie. Either way, just about everyone has been impacted by this movie. So, how were you influenced?
