On May 25, 1977, a pop culture phenomenon was born. After months of hype from creator George Lucas, a new adventure movie called Star Wars hit theaters — though not that many. The epic space opera only played across 42 screens during its Memorial Day weekend release because the bigwigs at 20th Century Fox never really believed that it would take off. "There were a lot of people at Fox who didn't want to make Star Wars," veteran distribution executive Larry Gleason told The Hollywood Reporter. "The running joke [was] that when George Lucas made his final pitch to Alan Ladd Jr., who was running Fox at the time, Laddie said no, but he said it so softly nobody heard him."
When it became clear that Star Wars was on course to become a runaway hit, Fox quickly revised its approach and expanded the release to 1,750 screens, giving way more people the chance to visit a galaxy far, far away. Before long, Star Wars was all that anyone could talk about, making sequels inevitable. What would later become known as the Skywalker Saga played out over the course of nine feature films, but none of them shook the foundations of the industry quite like the original movie, which was later re-branded Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. What was seeing the film in theaters back in 1977 really like? We've dug up accounts from the industry execs, journalists, and fans who were there, so buckle up.
Read More: https://www.looper.com/249198/what-it-was-really-like-to-see-star-wars-in-1977/?utm_campaign=clip
When it became clear that Star Wars was on course to become a runaway hit, Fox quickly revised its approach and expanded the release to 1,750 screens, giving way more people the chance to visit a galaxy far, far away. Before long, Star Wars was all that anyone could talk about, making sequels inevitable. What would later become known as the Skywalker Saga played out over the course of nine feature films, but none of them shook the foundations of the industry quite like the original movie, which was later re-branded Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. What was seeing the film in theaters back in 1977 really like? We've dug up accounts from the industry execs, journalists, and fans who were there, so buckle up.
Read More: https://www.looper.com/249198/what-it-was-really-like-to-see-star-wars-in-1977/?utm_campaign=clip
