Being Vewwy Vewwy Quiet

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I have a lot to do and have had no ideas to speak of.  No doubt if I see The Movie this weekend I will opine on it then, but even that I have nothing to say on at this point.

Except for one little thing I noticed the other day.  I saw someone mention people waiting in line for the first showing of the original Star Wars.

Huh?  Is this revisionism or was I just completely out of it?  Who in the world knew about that movie enough ahead of time to be rabid?  Remember, nobody was even sure it would do well.

I think my experience was not that unusual.  I became aware that the movie existed, on some level, after it was released, but had no special reason or compulsion to see it.  My best friend saw it, raved up and down, and all but dragged me to it after it had already been in the theaters several weeks.  The word of mouth build plus the unusual repeat viewings kept it in the theaters long enough so stragglers had no problem seeing it.

This past week is the first time I ever heard anything about lines to see it when it was first released.

1. Nope, there were LINES! I don’t know about opening weekend, but later on, oh yeah.

   We moved back to Canada late that summer, and I remember driving through a town in Oregon and seeing people lined up around the block. My parents were not impressed See, I wasn’t allowed to see it because it was rated PG, even though my best friend at the time had seen it multiple times. When we got to Canada, it was only rated G, so I finally got to see it.

   Posted by Ith  on  05/19  at  03:07 PM

2. I meant opening day.  It got popular, but before it was ever released?  People lining up hours or days ahead?

   Posted by Jay  on  05/19  at  03:39 PM

3. Well, I know my friends in school knew about the movie, and were all excited about it before it came out. So I’d be inclined to say that there were lines, at least in some places. I do remember seeing lots of TV ads too.

   Posted by Ith  on  05/19  at  03:44 PM

4. The Original grossed $1.5 million in its opening weekend.
   That’s in 1977 dollars.

   From what I can tell, that would be around $4 to $6 million today.

   Spiderman took in $39 million on its opening DAY.

   Posted by Rob@L&R  on  05/19  at  04:37 PM

5. Release patterns in 1977 were entirely different than today.  Star Wars opened in about 150 theaters its opening weekend.  Spider-Man 2 opened in over 3,000.  Making that comparison is pointless.

   There were lines for Star Wars, but not for opening day.  After the first two or three weeks, the buzz built up was incredible, and 20th Century Fox couldn’t strike enough prints to meet demand (an opening of 3,000 screens was just not possible then), leading to lines at the few theaters showing it.  The lines were generally of people who had already seen it.

   Posted by Ian  on  05/20  at  01:18 AM

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

<< Back to main

Powered by ExpressionEngine