Director William Friedkin had become famous for the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. Before making a followup, he decided to direct a non-supernatural thriller set in South America called Sorcerer:
Sorcerer opened theatrically in the United States on June 24, 1977, and ended up being a box office flop, grossing $5.9 million domestically and $9 million worldwide. Roger Ebert estimated that at the time, the film would have needed a gross of around $45–50m to just "break even". Many point to its commercial failure as a result of the movie being released a month after George Lucas' runaway box-office smash of 1977, Star Wars. Warned by Sorcerer film editor Bud Smith, Friedkin and his wife Jeanne Moreau watched the science-fiction epic at Mann's Chinese Theater and nervously saw the gigantic crowds that attended, knowing that his film would soon replace it. Friedkin's fears were correct; when Sorcerer debuted at the theater, it was so unsuccessful by comparison that Star Wars quickly returned.
Smith's reaction to Star Wars:
When our trailer [for Sorcerer] faded to black, the curtains closed and opened again, and they kept opening and opening, and you started feeling this huge thing coming over your shoulder overwhelming you, and heard this noise, and you went right off into space. It made our film look like this little, amateurish piece of shit. I told Billy [Friedkin], 'We're fucking being blown off the screen. You gotta go see this.'
Two other mistakes made by Friedkin and the studio:
After the film's failure, Universal Pictures cancelled Fredkin's contract.