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Little history:
Star Wars was released on a Wednesday, May 25, 1977, showing on 32 screens. Another 8-11 were added to that list over the next two days.
A famous story has it that George Lucas was taking his wife Marcia out for a meal during a brief break from mixing the foreign language prints of Star Wars. They came upon a crowd near Mann’s Chinese Theatre and initially had no idea that the phenomenon causing the commotion was George's movie.
But in short, to see the film on May 25, you had to be in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Louisville, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Salt Lake City , Seattle, St Paul or Washington DC.
The film reached Kansas City on Thursday May 26 and Chicago, Dallas, Dayton, Des Moines, Houston, Omaha and St Louis on the Friday.
Despite the immediate furore, the film only reached two more screens on June 3 and another three on June 10. It was only on June 17 that the film’s release widened significantly, reaching 157 screens.
With 20th Century-Fox producing prints as fast as it could, Star Wars reached 360 cinemas by June 24. The height of the film’s US release would not come until August 5, when it was on 1,044 screens. And most of the world would have to wait much longer.
In the UK, unless you could get to the West End of London over Christmas, Star Wars was not a film of 1977 at all, but a film of 1978. And in some parts of the country, it was well into 1978 before people saw it.
The way films were released in the 1970s was very different from today, when major movies are released everywhere at once and live or die by their opening weekend’s box office. But even by the standards of the time, the opening of Star Wars was quite small.
Earlier blockbusters like The Godfather and Jaws had opened on hundreds of screens. One of the other big films of 1977 was the tedious actioner The Deep, based on a novel by Jaws author Peter Benchley which opened on more than 800.
Why did Star Wars open on so few screens? There are two theories, depending on who you chose to believe. One was that 20th Century-Fox was mounting a “prestige opening” – showing the film in a small number of venues equipped with the best sound and projection systems, in order to generate enthusiasm ahead of a wider release. The other possible explanation is that few cinemas wanted it. It's said that Fox even told some venues that unless they booked Star Wars, they wouldn’t be able to show the company’s expected hit of 1977 – The Other Side of Midnight.
Supposedly Spielberg to this day still receives 2.5% of profits from ANH.
Wow thanks for the info jye! I wish I could go in a time machine to watch them in the cinemas back in the day.. Heck, I’d be down for another theatrical run!
I was thinking more broadly speaking earlier.
