A Long Time Ago...

May 24, 2011

Star Wars celebrates its thirty-fourth birthday this week. A celebration is in order.

When it originally debuted, theaters did not expect much from the film. Twentieth Century Fox, the studio that released the film, didn't do much to promote George Lucas’s work. Only thirty seven theaters nationwide agreed to show the movie based on the deal put out by the studio. Star Wars was paired with another film, The Other Side of Midnight. The later was a highly anticipated film based on the best-selling novel with the same name by Sidney Sheldon. If a theater wanted to show The Other Side of Midnight, they also had to show Star Wars. The film’s premiere date was even moved on purpose to the week before Memorial Day, due to the fear that it would get crushed by other summer films, like Smokey and the Bandit. Of the thirty-seven theaters that agreed to show it, all but one of them broke house records for box office returns.

Since May 25, 1977, Star Wars has expanded into multiple films, books, video games, toys and even one notorious Christmas Special. (Which, trivia buffs, was the original debut of the bounty hunter Boba Fett.)

So pop some popcorn, fire up the DVD player, and take a trip back to that galaxy far, far away.

Emily E.
Red Bridge Branch