George Lucas knew he was creating something special with Steven Spielberg underestimated Star Wars' success, although he at least told Lucas he was being unreasonable to believe the first movie would make only $15-20 million in the global box office (it made $775.8 million). Lucas clearly wasn't particularly confident in the film.

Star Wars may have been profitable, but Lucas always knew he stood on the shoulders of giants. Back in 1977, he told interviewers that the real masterpiece was Stanley Kubrick's 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey:

"Stanley Kubrick made the ultimate science fiction movie, and it is going to be very hard for someone to come along and make a better movie, as far as I’m concerned. On a technical level, it can be compared [to Star Wars], but personally, I think that 2001 is far superior."

Interviewed in the documentary Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001, Lucas explained why he'll always honor that movie. "It was the first time people took science fiction seriously," he explained. "A lot of sci-fi before that, especially in the 1950s, was closer to B-movie fare. Giant monsters, spiders, everything was just about being bigger."

Lucas Drew Inspiration From 2001 When He Made Star Wars

Kubrick’s Classic Revolutionized Science Fiction Techniques

Lucas employed a lot of the same techniques as Kubrick when he made Star Wars, and film historians point to two throughlines in particular: the use of model kits to create spaceships and starfighters, and the fantastical music. Most sci-fi movies of the day had tended to use electronic soundtracks, but Kubrick used stock music during editing and fell in love with it, deciding to keep it. Lucas followed his lead, hiring John Williams to make the iconic Star Wars themes.

Attentive viewers have long noticed some visual similarities between the Millennium Falcon's docking and scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This isn't a coincidence; Lucas intended them as deliberate homages, nods of respect to the filmmaker he considered to have made a superior product. It's striking to imagine Star Wars as part of the Kubrick legacy.

2001: A Space Odyssey Changed The World

People Started To See Space Exploration Differently

We tend to underestimate the impact of popular movies. As space historian Howard McCurdy has noted, 2001 changed the way people thought of space exploration; it became seen as something bold and spectacular, grand and exciting. The vision of the future Kubrick unveiled was one people longed to see - with space stations, missions to Jupiter, and bases on the moon. When 2001 actually ed, many expressed disappointment.

The irony, of course, is that the year 2001 ed when George Lucas was once again working on Star Wars. He'd returned to that galaxy back in 1999, and he was deep in production for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Still, he seems to have always respected Kubrick's work, even as he continued to push the boundaries of filmmaking - as his hero had done before him.