American Graffiti was nominated for five different categories at the 46th Academy Awards, and in 1995 American Graffiti was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and was added to the National Film Registry for preservation, says Wikipedia.
Fine Arts class will see it in the context of a) history of pop music b) history of cinema and c) how to write an evaluation of a movie.
George Lucas began developing the film shortly after the release of his THX 1138 in 1971, while at the same time developing an "untitled science fiction space opera",[2] later to become the basis for Star Wars.[3]Drawing upon his large collection of vintage 45 rpm singles, Lucas wrote every scene of the movie with a specific musical backdrop in mind, while listening to the various record albums. American Graffiti would be the first film to feature such an extensive soundtrack of original rock and roll recordings.[14]
The cost of licensing the 75 songs that Lucas wanted contributed to United Artist's rejection of the script; they saw it as "a musical montage with no characters".[4] They also passed on the science fiction idea, which Lucas temporarily shelved[4] (this would eventually become the birth of Star Wars).[3] Lucas spent the rest of 1971 and early 1972 trying to raise interest in his script for Graffiti. THX 1138 had brought him an unwelcome notoriety, and he was instead offered the chance to direct films such as Tommy (1975) and Hair (1979).[4] Lucas took the script to American International Pictures, and was told "we will accept if you make it more violent and exploitational".[16] Columbia Pictures passed on Graffiti as they felt licensing the songs would be around $500,000[17] (the final cost only came to $80,000).[18]
American Graffiti was a low-budget project, and the studio had only modest expectations for its commercial success. However, they did object to the film's title, having no clue what "American Graffiti" meant (some thought it was about feet). Universal submitted a long list of 65 alternative titles (with their favorite being Another Slow Night in Modesto).[5] Francis Ford Coppola and Universal also insisted on changing it to Rock Around the Block.[27] Lucas didn't like any of the choices and persuaded the studio to keep the title.[5]
In post-production Lucas proposed 80 background songs, before narrowing it down to 45.[27] The studio suggested hiring an orchestra to re-record the songs. In turn, Universal proposed a deal that offered every music publisher the same amount of money. This was acceptable to most of the companies representing Lucas' choices, but not to RCA (with the consequence that Elvis Presley's songs were not used).[19] In total, $80,000 was spent for music rights, and none for a film score.[18]
American Graffiti opened on August 1, 1973, earning over $115 million in North America. The film was a box office success, recouping 92 times its budget of $1,250,000.[8] Graffiti is the highest cost-to-profit success in film history,[1] and is often cited for helping give birth to the summer blockbuster.[33] Adjusted for inflation the film became the 41st highest grossing movie in North America.[34] George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola had a controversy over control of box office profits, affecting their friendship.[1] Film rentals went up to a staggering $55,886,000. However, Graffiti was less successful in foreign countries, earning only five million dollars overseas, although the film developed a cult following in France. Lucas stated, "Francis [Coppola] was kicking himself forever for the fact that if he had financed the film himself, he would have been a rich man." No one expected Graffiti to be a financial success, least of all Lucas.[1]
The film's box office success made George Lucas an instant millionaire. He gave a large amount of the film's profits to Haskell Wexler for his visual consulting help during filming, and to Wolfman Jack. Lucas's net worth was now $4 million, and he set aside a $300,000 fund for his long cherished science fiction project, which he would eventually title The Star Wars.[22] With his profits from the film, Lucas was able to establish more elaborate development for his company Lucasfilm and created what would become the successful companies Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound.[22]
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