Star Wars fans mark 30 years
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Saturday, 26, May 2007 12:32
The 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars film has been commemorated by more than 25,000 fans in Los Angeles.
Aficionados of the sci-fi movies gathered on the third day of a five-day convention to mark the 30 years since Star Wars: A New Hope was released in just 32 American cinemas on May 25th 1977.
Since then George Lucas' franchise has gone on to become one of the largest in Hollywood, with the six Star Wars films and associated merchandise creating a standalone industry worth billions of dollars.
The first Star Wars film and sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) broke new ground in terms of special effects thanks to Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic visual effects company.
Lucas then attempted to breathe fresh life into the franchise starting with The Phantom Menace in 1999, with the movie chronologically set before the first three films.
But while The Phantom Menace attracted the ire of die-hard Star Wars fans and critics alike, subsequent releases Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith broke records at the box office.