Magazine Article: Assignment 2

The Warriors (1979) based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Soloman Yurick is one of the most popular and influential films of its time made and distributed by Paramount Pictures although not a large budget, especially for its time like films such as Star Trek The Motion Picture having large budgets (40 Million - 50 Million) it really had something to prove. They used a lot of actors that were not big stars and who hadn't starred in big films because the director (Walter Hill) wanted to capture an original and gritty look on gangs in New York City. Walter Hill who directed the film also Co-Wrote the screenplay which gave him and David Shaber (who also wrote the screenplay) a lot of freedom with the production process of the film. Walter Hill had been a successful writer for most of the films he had been employed to work on, although directing 2 unsuccessful film made it very risky for Paramount Pictures to take on a film like this due to the nature of the film and the budget it had. The film is an Action/Crime/Thriller that stands out to the rest, unlike the other films in that certain genre the gritty and tough nature of the film is what makes the film great, with real gangs from New York playing roles in the film you got a sense of what it was really like to be in a gang when you watched this film also during the 1970's gangs was a huge culture especially in big cities such as New York I feel this also give the film an extra push when it came to advertising because a gang related film, especially of this kind of nature had never been done before so I feel it helped the film get more exposure. The scenes in this film didn't require a big budget due to them not having to use any CGI or special effects because it isn't incorporated in this type of genre. The film proved successful and the audience loved the grittiness and reality that the film showed on camera in fact it was so successful it took over $3.5 million in its opening weekend and proved a hit for many years. Like the classic type of Action/Thriller it didn't need to incorporate any other type of genre like Sci-Fi to make more money, all together it made over $22,490,039. 

In comparison with...

Star Wars: A New Hope 
Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. The film earned $1,554,475 through its opening weekend ($6.05 million in today's terms), building up to $7 million weekends as it entered wide release ($27.2 million in today's terms).  It replaced JAWS as the highest-earning film in North America just six months into release,eventually earning over $220 million during its initial theatrical run ($856 million in today's terms). Star Wars entered international release towards the end of the year, and in 1978 added the worldwide record to its domestic one, earning $410 million in total. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(film)#Box_office 

George Lucas used actors that were not very well known apart from a few like Harrison Ford who he had previously worked with. He didn't do this for any particular reason apart from he thought they would fit the role he created the most, normally this wouldn't be very good for the sale of the film if the audience didn't know many actors that starred in the film but this time it didn't, in fact it made the film more popular due to not only the idea being new but also they wanted to watch these actors they had never seen before. 
George Lucas being the director who also wrote the screenplay, he again like Walter Hill had more freedom with the production process of the movie. George Lucas and his team presented the idea to big film studios around Hollywood, After United Artists rejected to budget the film, Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz presented the film treatment to Universal Pictures, the studio that financed American Graffiti (Another George Lucas film); however, it passed on its options for the film because the concept was "a little strange", and it said that Lucas should follow American Graffiti with more consequential themes. Lucas said, "I've always been an outsider to Hollywood types. They think I do weirdo films." Another reason the film was rejected "because it was science fiction, and science fiction wasn't popular in the mid-'70s." Kurtz said that "what seems to be the case generally is that the studio executives are looking for what was popular last year, rather than trying to look forward to what might be popular next year." Quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(film)#Development
George Lucas had done some successful films before Star Wars: A New Hope such as THX 1138 also a Sci-Fi movie and American Graffiti which was one of the most successful movies of its time this helped bring sales up of the film because they know about the Director and if his films are going to be good and a success. 
This film is a Sci-fi and unlike no other, George Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic specifically to create the ground breaking visual effects needed for the film, The special effects that they used was way ahead of its time and truly special. Unlike The Warriors it involved a lot of different genres such as Action/Adventure and sometimes even a thriller it incorporated these to try and appeal to a bigger audience, like in the quote " Sci-Fi wasn't popular in the mid-70s" Sci-Fi needed something to push it to a wider audience and other genres did that and helped it gain more gross when it came to showings at the Cinemas. 20th Century Fox was in charge of distributing the film which again means funding was available to market the film worldwide.

In conclusion both films had its ways to both promote there films and some had bigger budgets which made them sell a lot better due to better equipment and facilities, although Star Wars sold a lot more and had a higher gross than The Warriors they both did equally well when it comes to how enjoyable the film is.
Many factors can influence the making of a film such as the budget and special effects, in this case a budget did effect The Warriors because it was such a low  budget so it couldn't provide the best movie material although a tremendously shot film for such a small amount of money. Star Wars was again, on a very low budget with just $11 million George Lucas made it work and it turned out brilliantly and is named one of the best films to have ever been made. Following the release of the Special Edition in 1997,Star Wars briefly reclaimed the North American record before losing it again the following year to Titanic. In total, the film has earned $775,398,007 worldwide (including $460,998,007 in North America alone). Adjusted for inflation, it has earned over $2.5 billion worldwide at 2011 prices, making it the most successful franchise film of all time.

In 2005, Paramount Home Video released the "Ultimate Director's Cut" DVD of The Warriors. Aside from a remastered picture quality and a new 5.1 surround remixed soundtrack, the film has been re-edited with a new introduction and comic book-style sequences between scenes. In July 2007 the "Ultimate Director's Cut" was released onto Blu-ray. Although it doesn't say how much it earned adding this great film to Blu Ray would have made money on sales.