Star Wars George Lucas

MPAA rating

When Star Wars was submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America's rating board, the votes for the rating were evenly split between G and PG. In an unusual move, Fox requested the stricter PG rating, in part because it believed the film was too scary for young children, but also because it feared teenagers would perceive the G rating as "uncool". Lucasfilm marketer Charley Lippincott supported Fox's position after witnessing a five-year-old at the film's preview become upset by a scene in which Darth Vader chokes a Rebel captain. Although the board initially opted for the G rating, it reneged after Fox's request and applied the PG rating.[164]

First public screening

On May 1, 1977, the first public screening of Star Wars was held at Northpoint Theatre in San Francisco,[165][166] where American Graffiti was test-screened four years earlier.[167][168]

Premiere and initial release

Lucas wanted the film released in May, on the Memorial Day weekend. According to Fox executive Gareth Wigan, "Nobody had ever opened a summer film before school was out." Lucas, however, hoped the school-term release would build word-of-mouth publicity among children.[169] Fox ultimately decided on a release date of May 25, the Wednesday before the holiday weekend. Very few theaters, however, wanted to show Star Wars. To encourage exhibitors to purchase the film, Fox packaged it with The Other Side of Midnight, a film based on a bestselling book. If a theater owner wanted to show Midnight, they had to show Star Wars, too.[47]

Lucas's film debuted on Wednesday, May 25, 1977, in 32 theaters. Another theater was added on Thursday, and ten more began showing the film on Friday.[143] On Wednesday, Lucas was so absorbed in work—approving advertising campaigns and mixing sound for the film's wider-release version—that he forgot the film was opening that day.[170] His first glimpse of its success occurred that evening, when he and Marcia went out for dinner on Hollywood Boulevard. Across the street, crowds were lining up outside Mann's Chinese Theatre, waiting to see Star Wars.[116][171]

Two weeks after its release, Lucas's film was replaced by William Friedkin's Sorcerer at Mann's due to contractual obligations. The theater owner moved Star Wars to a less-prestigious location after quickly renovating it.[172] After Sorcerer failed to meet expectations, Lucas's film was given a second opening at Mann's on August 3. Thousands of people attended a ceremony in which C-3PO, R2-D2 and Darth Vader placed their footprints in the theater's forecourt.[173][47] By this time, Star Wars was playing in 1,096 theaters in the United States.[174] Approximately 60 theaters played the film continuously for over a year. In May 1978, Lucasfilm distributed "Birthday Cake" posters to those theaters for special events on the one-year anniversary of the film's release.[175][176] Star Wars premiered in the UK on December 27, 1977. News reports of the film's popularity in America caused long lines to form at the two London theaters that first offered the film; it became available in 12 large cities in January 1978, and additional London theaters in February.[177]

On opening day I ... did a radio call-in show ... this caller, was really enthusiastic and talking about the movie in really deep detail. I said, "You know a lot about the film." He said, "Yeah, yeah, I've seen it four times already."

—Gary Kurtz, on when he realized Star Wars had become a cultural phenomenon[178]

The film immediately broke box office records.[173] Three weeks after it opened, Fox's stock price had doubled to a record high. Prior to 1977, the studio's highest annual profit was $37 million. In 1977, it posted a profit of $79 million.[47] Lucas had instantly become very wealthy. His friend, director Francis Ford Coppola, sent a telegram to his hotel asking for money to finish his film Apocalypse Now.[170] Cast members became instant household names, and even technical crew members, such as model makers, were asked for autographs.[47] When Harrison Ford visited a record store to buy an album, enthusiastic fans tore half his shirt off.[170]

Lucas had been certain Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind would outperform his space opera at the box office. Before Star Wars opened, Lucas proposed to Spielberg that they trade 2.5% of the profit on each other's films. Spielberg accepted, believing Lucas's film would be the bigger hit. Spielberg still receives 2.5% of the profits from Star Wars.[179]

Box office

Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. It earned over $2.5 million in its first six days ($12.9 million in 2023 dollars).[180] According to Variety's weekly box office charts, it was number one at the US box office for its first three weeks. It was dethroned by The Deep, but gradually added screens and returned to number one in its seventh week, building up to $7-million weekends as it entered wide release ($35.2 million in 2023 dollars) and remained number one for the next 15 weeks.[3] It replaced Jaws as the highest-earning film in North America just six months into release,[181] eventually grossing over $220 million during its initial theatrical run ($1.11 billion in 2023 dollars).[182] Star Wars entered international release towards the end of the year, and in 1978 added the worldwide record to its domestic one,[183] earning $314.4 million in total.[3] Its biggest international market was Japan, where it grossed $58.4 million.[184]

On July 21, 1978, while still showing in 38 theaters in the US, the film expanded into a 1,744 theater national saturation windup of release and set a new U.S. weekend record of $10,202,726.[185][186][187] The gross prior to the expansion was $221,280,994. The expansion added a further $43,774,911 to take its gross to $265,055,905. Reissues in 1979 ($22,455,262), 1981 ($17,247,363), and 1982 ($17,981,612) brought its cumulative gross in the U.S. and Canada to $323 million,[188][189] and extended its global earnings to $530 million.[190] In doing so, it became the first film to gross $500 million worldwide,[191] and remained the highest-grossing film of all time until E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial broke that record in 1983.[192]

The release of the Special Edition in 1997 was the highest-grossing reissue of all-time with a gross of $138.3 million, bringing its total gross in the United States and Canada to $460,998,007, reclaiming the all-time number one spot.[193][3][194][195] Internationally, the reissue grossed $117.2 million, with $26 million from the United Kingdom and $15 million from Japan.[184] In total, the film has grossed over $775 million worldwide.[3]

Adjusted for inflation, it had earned over $2.5 billion worldwide at 2011 prices,[196] which saw it ranked as the third-highest-grossing film at the time, according to Guinness World Records.[197] At the North American box office, it ranks second behind Gone with the Wind on the inflation-adjusted list.[198]