13 Awesome Movies That Only Happened Because Of Awful Flops

11. Star Wars...Because George Lucas Got His Lucky Break On Finian€™s Rainbow

The Awesome Movie: George Lucas' 1977 sci-fi flick needs no introduction at all, a thrillingly iconic space opera that spawned two direct sequels and three (mostly naff) prequels, as well as three more planned sequels over the next 5 years, not to mention a merchandise line with a worth exceeding the GDP of a small country. How It Got Made: The road to Star Wars began when Lucas won a scholarship to work on a movie of his choosing, and he picked Francis Ford Coppola's Fred Astaire and Petula Clark-starring musical Finian's Rainbow. While the movie stunk something fierce (and has a rather generous 54% on Rotten Tomatoes), it got Lucas in with Coppola, who used his production company American Zoetrope to get Lucas' first sci-fi film, THX 1138, made. This then brought about the circumstances for Lucas to make his second film, American Graffiti, which was the first part of a two-picture deal he had with Universal, the second film being Star Wars. Without Lucas working on the terrible Coppola film, Star Wars may never have been...