> Scorsese, Ford-Coppola, Friedkin, De Palma and Spielberg were doing fuck all then
Scorsese had one hit film in the 70's. Taxi Driver - 1976. Box Office was $27.3 Million.
DePalma had Carrie in '76. Box office was $33.8 million.
Speilberg had Jaws. $260 million Box office. Close Encounters screened the same year as Star Wars. He was quoted as saying E.T. would have never been financed by the studios if Star Wars had not existed.
Ford Coppola was a mentor for Lucas. He had a run of five films in the 70's. Godfather 1+2, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now and Patton. Total of all five films was $329 million Box office.
Freidkin did The French Connection and The Exorcist (Some would argue they were his only hits). Total of 492 million for both films.
Star Wars alone brought in $775 million.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Speilberg directed, Lucas financed and produced) $384 million. So with two films in the late 70's, he brought in over a billion dollars. So if you add up all of the above directors they total less than what George did alone.
As we are talking about only the 70's I will not include the 5+ billion dollars the other Lucas films brought in since. Of the top ten grossing sci-fi films Lucas is responsible for five and Speilberg one.
Star Wars / Raiders success kicked off a golden age in Hollywood sci-fi. E.T., Alien, Superman, King Kong, Blade Runner, etc. Star Trek: The Motion Picture got financing directly because of Star Wars success. That continues today with the Matrix, Blade, Underworld, Lord of the Rings / Hobbit, Avatar, Men in Black, Jurrasic Park, Back to the Future, etc. etc. etc.
Directors who credited George as a positive influence include: Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Bryan Singer, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Ron Howard, John Singleton, Roland Emmerich and Ridley Scott.
Industrial Light and Magic (Lucas owned) has done special effects work on most of the above listed films and has changed the way Hollywood makes movies. In no way am I discounting the work of the other directors, but none of the ones you listed changed Hollywood except incrementally.
Well said Asgard. People who down thumbed you are Jar-Jar groupies.