Star Wars: The Force Awakens world premiere
Star Wars stars walk the red carpet ahead of The Force Awakens world premiere in Hollywood.
PT2M43S 620 349A veritable army of security guards, publicists and event staffers. Quadruple the typical number of invited guests. A lavish after-party, replete with Stormtroopers and a roaming Chewbacca, stretching for four city blocks.
Even by the razzmatazz standards of the Walt Disney Co., the high-security, spare-no-expense world premiere for Star Wars: The Force Awakens Monday was something to behold. "Sincere apologies to the neighbourhood," the film's director, J.J. Abrams, said in his introductory remarks, dryly calling the event "incredibly low key."
For fans, and there were plenty among the A-listers in attendance (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is not in the film, turned up in green face paint and Yoda ears), the premiere was a chance to revel in the restart of the Star Wars franchise after a decade of theatrical absence.
![Carrie Fisher hamming it up on the red carpet at the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.](/web/20151217222940im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/l/o/v/d/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.glogwa.png/1450238533273.jpg)
Carrie Fisher hamming it up on the red carpet at the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Photo: Jason Merritt
For Disney, the premiere, which overflowed from the Dolby to two adjacent theatres, the TCL Chinese and the El Capitan, was an overt celebration of its 2012 decision to get into the Star Wars business. Disney, which paid $4 billion for Lucasfilm, will collect an estimated $2.5 billion in global ticket sales for The Force Awakens, with related merchandise generating $5 billion over the next year.
Since the collapse of the DVD market in 2007, movie premieres have become more austere affairs. But there was a time when premieres as ostentatious as The Force Awakens event were relatively common. Universal Pictures took over 38 theatres in the Times Square area in 2005 for its King Kong premiere; Disney unveiled Pearl Harbor in 2001 on an aircraft carrier in Hawaii, erecting grandstand seating on the flight deck.
Disney worked hard to keep the premiere festive (invitations noted that "parking for your Landspeeder, Sandcrawler or other transportation vehicle" would be provided), but unusually heightened security undercut the lightheartedness. With the recent massacre of 14 people in nearby San Bernardino still fresh in people's minds, Disney sent invited guests through metal detectors and frisking checkpoints.
![Carrie Fisher](/web/20151217222940im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/l/o/v/d/t/image.gallery.galleryLandscape.620x414.glowry.png/1450236522763.jpg)
Star Wars The Force Awakens premiere red carpet
Celebrities used the fashion force at the premiere of the latest Star Wars installment in Hollywood. Photo: Jason Merritt
"I literally had to walk through five metal detectors to get to my spot on the red carpet," Cameron Mathison, a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, said during a live interview before the premiere began. It is extremely unusual for a studio to use metal detectors at all.
The Los Angeles Police Department deployed more than 70 officers to the event, according to Sgt. Robert Ward. There was at least one bomb-sniffing dog. Confirmation letters emailed by Disney to attendees Friday advised, "For your safety and security, we ask you leave masks, face shields, or other facial feature obstructing headgear or make-up, as well as light sabers, blasters, or other weaponry (real or simulated) at home."
Disney declined to comment on its reasoning for the intense security.
The fashion was a welcome reprieve from the usual "red carpet glamour" that underpins most premieres. Stars Lupita Nyong'o, in a Alexandre Vauthier jewel encrusted gown one could see from space and Daisy Ridley and her cirrus cloud of a gown by Chloe stole the show. While others like Hart of Dixie star Jaime King looked like a member of the Star Wars Cantina Band with wings and suit sleeves fashioned to the back of her ivory mini dress.
The Force Awakens focuses on a young woman, Rey, as she becomes entwined with efforts led by General Leia, no longer a princess, to locate a vanished Luke Skywalker and generally save the galaxy from evil combatants called the First Order.
Four more Star Wars-themed movies are on the way by 2020.
Costing roughly $350 million to make and market worldwide, The Force Awakens will begin playing in previews in Australia on Wednesday night.
New York Times with Fairfax Media