Vintage SW newspaper ads on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_nkw=%22star+wars%22&_sacat=0&_odkw=&item=290689717172&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_osacat=0&hash=item43ae7513b4&_ssn=historicnewspapersandcomics

This is a real nostalgia trip. You just don't see ads touting a movie that been running for 33 weeks in a row anymore. :)

And I don't think I've seen that Christmas full page ad since 1977!

SilverWook said:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_nkw=%22star+wars%22&_sacat=0&_odkw=&item=290689717172&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_osacat=0&hash=item43ae7513b4&_ssn=historicnewspapersandcomics

This is a real nostalgia trip. You just don't see ads touting a movie that been running for 33 weeks in a row anymore. :)

yeah, you do..

dark knight, avatar, titanic, et.

back to the future.. jurassic park,

..etc. etc. etc..

All but two of those movies are over a decade old or more. I don't recall Dark Knight or Avatar playing for well over a year.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Bingowings said:

my late dad was a brilliant practical joker, for years after he died I still thought babies came from men having sex with women

WTF?

It's a cruel trick some parents do, when they are uncomfortable talking to their kids about storks.

CatBus said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

Bingowings said:

my late dad was a brilliant practical joker, for years after he died I still thought babies came from men having sex with women

WTF?

 

It's a cruel trick some parents do, when they are uncomfortable talking to their kids about storks.

But.....where do baby storks come from?

Davnes007 said:

CatBus said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

Bingowings said:

my late dad was a brilliant practical joker, for years after he died I still thought babies came from men having sex with women

WTF?

 

It's a cruel trick some parents do, when they are uncomfortable talking to their kids about storks.

But.....where do baby storks come from.

Flying Elephants

negative1 said:

SilverWook said:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_nkw=%22star+wars%22&_sacat=0&_odkw=&item=290689717172&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_osacat=0&hash=item43ae7513b4&_ssn=historicnewspapersandcomics

This is a real nostalgia trip. You just don't see ads touting a movie that been running for 33 weeks in a row anymore. :)

yeah, you do..

dark knight, avatar, titanic, et.

back to the future.. jurassic park,

..etc. etc. etc..

All but two of those movies are over a decade old or more. I don't recall Dark Knight or Avatar playing for well over a year.

Only two of those even qualify as "recent" movies. And I don't recall either one playing well over an entire year. That just does not happen in today's box office climate, where the home video version is often being worked on before the film even opens.

SilverWook said:

negative1 said:

SilverWook said:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_nkw=%22star+wars%22&_sacat=0&_odkw=&item=290689717172&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_osacat=0&hash=item43ae7513b4&_ssn=historicnewspapersandcomics

This is a real nostalgia trip. You just don't see ads touting a movie that been running for 33 weeks in a row anymore. :)

yeah, you do..

dark knight, avatar, titanic, et.

back to the future.. jurassic park,

..etc. etc. etc..

All but two of those movies are over a decade old or more. I don't recall Dark Knight or Avatar playing for well over a year.

Only two of those even qualify as "recent" movies. And I don't recall either one playing well over an entire year. That just does not happen in today's box office climate, where the home video version is often being worked on before the film even opens.

you only mentioned 33 weeks..

all of those lasted 33 weeks and even longer..

et lasted a year.

jurassic park a year.

etc. etc.. (domestic)

later

-1

Were they hyped in newspaper ads like Star Wars was back in the day?

"33rd smash week!" That's what I was referring to.

That would be an interesting collection - weekly newspaper ads tracking the film's theatrical run.

Anchorhead said:

Man, that is the good old days in a nutshell.  Back when the film was a stand-alone entity taking the world by storm.  No uber-connectivity, real-time, over saturation.  Just a film.  You had little to attach to other than newspaper ads and articles.  Great times.

and the thousands of toys, merchandise,

news stories, books, comics, albums,

singles, costumes, etc. etc. etc.

no such thing as 'just the movie', even

when star wars came out.. maybe back

in the 50's and 60's.. by the 70's everything

became commercial.. not sure what you mean

by 'good old days'.

you couldn't get away from it even if you

tried, unless you were a hermit that lived

in a cave.

later

-1

Anchorhead said:

By good old days,I mean the simple release of a film in 1977 as compared to the current style of marketing; a year-long viral campaign, three web sites, six trailers, eight pre-release one-sheets, fans emulating characters they haven't even seen yet, and cell phone apps.

 

things weren't any better in the 70's..

there were ads for star wars months before it came out,

novelizations prepared on release, comic books, action figures ready to go..

articles in magazines, appearances at conferences promoting it. multiple

posters, interviews, etc, etc, etc..

it was anything but simple..

later

-1

Action figures ready to go? Then why did Kenner have to sell me and every other kid a glorified  I.O.U. that Christmas? ;)

SilverWook said:

Action figures ready to go? Then why did Kenner have to sell me and every other kid a glorified  I.O.U. that Christmas? ;)

yeah, that was a problem when you sell something that becomes

TOO popular!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenner_Star_Wars_action_figures

--

Although the original Star Wars film had been released in May 1977, Kenner were unprepared for the unprecedented response to the film and the high demand for toys. Unable to build sufficient stock in time for the lucrative Christmas market, they instead sold an "Early Bird Certificate Package" which included a certificate which could be mailed to Kenner and redeemed for four Star Wars action figures.^[2] The box also contained a diorama display stand, some stickers, and a Star Wars fan club membership card.^[3]

By the time the action figures were offered for direct sale in shops, the range had been augmented with a further eight figures, bringing the total number of figures in the initial release to twelve. These were supplemented later in 1978 with a number of vehicle and playset accessories, as well as the J.C. Penney exclusive Sonic controlled landspeeder and the Sears exculsive Cantina adventure playset which introduced four new figures.

The four figures that were first brought out in the Sears Cantina set were released for individual sale with a further four figures later in 1978, bringing the total number of figures to 20. Demand for the action figures and accessories was such that Kenner continued to have difficulty fulfilling demand. Shortages of the toys in the lead up to Christmas 1978 lead some to claim that Kenner were deliberately manipulating the market.^[4] Sales of Kenner's Star Wars range in 1978 reached 40 million units, accounting for a turnover of $100 million.^[5]

--

so even though they might have had plans.. they didn't plan

far enough ahead! oh well..

later

-1

Better to have produced too few action figures than too many- if the movie had flopped, they would have gotten stuck with a lot of unwanted junk. Even in the case of TPM- they produced too much stuff, and a lot of it ended up in outlet stores like Big Lots.

No one could have predicted the popularity of SW, plus the movie tie-in-merchandising concept had not reached full maturity prior to SW.

A couple of Kenner's competitors were able to retool old molds and crank out toys that were in breathing distance of a lawsuit at the time.

I had the villain from this line menacing my old G.I. Joes.

http://www.plaidstallions.com/ideal/starteam.html

There were probably a ton of lightsaber knockoffs, since all you really needed was a flashlight and a plastic tube.

The great shortage of '77 is one reason tie-in toys hit the shelves weeks or even months before a movie opens nowadays. The plot for Tron Legacy was slightly spoiled for me just because I took a shortcut through the toy aisle at Target! ;)

i think my big fat greek wedding played for a long time - and this was advertised.

so the key is to have a sleeper hit - especially if its a low budget movie that makes it big.

man - those ads are great. 

does anyone have the ROTJ newspaper ad that had one critic quoting "its the first movie triple crown!" thats how different things were.  most sequels were crap cash-ins that were only green-lit if the orignal was popular (with some exceptions).  trilogies were virtually unheard of at the time.

whew...35 years ago.