THOUSANDS of fans dressed as Jedi, Princess Leia and R2D2 have celebrated 30 years of Star Wars.
In Hollywood, where moneyed studios crank out films, many of which seem to be forgotten almost as fast as they are made, fans by the thousands remembered the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, that rare blockbuster that earned a cult following.
Fans dressed as Luke Skywalker, soldiers of the Empire and lovable robots began arriving for the Star Wars Conference on Wednesday and are expected to go home on Sunday.
In the meantime, fans are buying up masks for as much as $US1,000 ($A1,224) light sabres, figurines of the robots R2D2 and CP3O, posters, bibs for babies and Teddy bear-style Ewok dolls, based on the fuzzy creatures that appear in the 1983 movie Return of the Jedi.
Some 10,000 people are expected each day at the Convention Centre, many of them seeking light-sabre combat training, photographs alongside their favourite characters, and autographs.
The first day of the congress was reserved for members of the Club Star Wars, thousands of whom watched the six films in a non-stop, 17-hour showing.
Star Wars, one of the top grossing movies of all time, had a modest beginning in just 32 theatres across North America on May 25, 1977.
But the science fiction-fantasy movie grew into a monster hit worldwide and quickly became a classic, prompting writer-director-producer Lucas to make two equally successful sequels: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Return of the Jedi in 1983.
After a 16-year break he made three prequels : The Phantom Menace in 1999, Attack of the Clones in 2002 and Revenge of the Sith in 2005, which tell the story leading up to the original movies.
The films set new standards for special effects, but are known as the first to make fortunes in movie tie-in merchandise.
Star Wars spawned television series, books, comics, video games and toys, which Forbes magazine estimated in 2005 generated $US20 billion ($A24.48 billion).
The most recent in the series raked in $US850 million ($A1.04 billion) in box office receipts worldwide.
Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of the city of Los Angeles, which with a population of four million is the second-most populous in the United States, even proclaimed today Star Wars Day.
The US Postal Service marked today's anniversary by issuing limited-edition stamps depicting Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, the feisty robot R2D2 and others.
Fans can vote on the postal service website for their favourite stamp of the series. The winner will be re-issued at mid-year.
In early March the postal service announced that some 400 mailboxes would be made up to look like R2D2.
We welcome your comments on this story. Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited.
Please provide your full name. We also require a working email address - not for publication, but for verification. The location field is optional.
News RSS