To paraphrase Wolfman Jack: Where were you in ‘73? I remind you that the legendary DJ used that line “Where were you in ‘62” to promote the movie trailer.
Back in August 1973, there were no troops fighting in Vietnam, the economy was doing well, President Nixon looked awfully strong, some were already talking about Spiro in ‘76, and something called Watergate was in the news.
Then we learned that something called “American Graffiti” was at the movies.
Happy anniversary to a very popular movie that started out as a low budget summer flick and ended up making a lot of money. This is the story:
After success directing ‘The Godfather,’ (1972) Francis Ford Coppola, came aboard as the producer for the 1973 film ‘American Graffiti,’ saving the film from being butchered.
Universal Pictures decided to edit ‘American Graffiti’ so it could be a television movie. Director George Lucas had objected, but Coppola had considerable power over the film, which follows the classic coming of age story of a group of teens in 1962, set in Modesto, California.
Coppola and Lucas were close friends; he encouraged Lucas – who had one film under his belt at the time, a forgettable sci-fi film, ‘THX 1138’ – to create a movie that is warm and relatable.
Lucas and fellow screenwriters Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck nailed it, and ‘American Graffiti’ became one of the most beloved and profitable movies at the time. The film earned more than $140 million with a budget just under $800,000.
I’m not a math genius but turning $800,000 into $140,000,000 would qualify as a pretty good return on investment.
Wonder how many of Hollywood’s studios would love profits like that? They blame “streaming” and everything else. Nobody blames the movies and how disconnected the film is from the people who buy tickets. Are you listening Disney?
To be honest, it took renting a VHS in the 1980s before I got around to watching the movie. My first impression was similar to Saturday Night Fever: good songs but stupid plot. Looking back, I understand why the movie clicked. It was a love story, full of some really great characters, a wonderful dancing scene between the love couple, and lots of cars burning gas. Great date movie: cars for the guys and a couple dancing to The Platters.
Yes, we could use a little American Graffiti in ‘25.
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Image: Free image, Pixabay license.