On May 25, 1977, a pop culture phenomenon was born. After months of hype, a movie called Star
Wars hit theaters. But what was it really like seeing the film back in 1977? We've gathered
accounts from filmmakers, journalists, and fans to take us back to a galaxy far, far away.
While it took a week or two for Star Wars fever to fully catch on nationwide,
it was an overnight sensation in California. The film premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in
Hollywood, where it became completely normal to see lines of fans camped outside the moviehouse.
Actress Carrie Fisher told Time magazine…
"It wasn't like a movie opening, it was like an earthquake."
The Chinese Theatre was at the epicenter of that earthquake, and thousands of fans were drawn to
it every day. Speaking to CNN, Star Wars fan Chris Balduc recalled traveling from the San
Fernando Valley to Hollywood to see the movie on May 26th, just one day after the film opened.
"The long line wound down the street from Grauman's Chinese Theatre and around the block.
News helicopters hovered in the air above the crowd. Star Wars was the first film
to earn a reputation as a party movie — the fans brought costumes, beach balls,
folding chairs for the line, and an almost palatable anticipation. [...] There was no
better place to see it than Grauman's Chinese in its pre-multiplex days."
On advice from 20th Century Fox, the owners of the famous theater only booked Star Wars for a
two-week run. When a scheduling conflict meant they couldn't show the hit film after that,
they resorted to desperate measures and refurbished an old cinema.
Larry Gleason, former president of Mann Theatres, told The Hollywood Reporter...
"We moved Star Wars there, where it played for two weeks before coming back to the Chinese."
Star Wars toys would explode in popularity over the next couple years,
but back when the film was first released,
the toys weren't ready and all kids had was the movie itself. George Lucas' film became
so popular with youngsters that some of them were even ditching school so they could see it.
A lifelong fan, Patrick Payne, told StarWars.com…
"Unless you lived through it (and can remember), it's kind of hard for modern audiences to
understand just how different the world was in 1977, just prior to the release of Star Wars.
I had seen the trailers on TV and in the theater, months earlier.
They didn't say much. However, what little they showed had already triggered my imagination."
Payne sought out the novelization of Star Wars, which had hit the shelves in November 1976.
After reading the book, he knew that he absolutely had to see the story play out on the big screen.
Payne recalled that a little thing like class wasn't going to stand in his way…
"I, for one, was NOT going to miss this movie even if I had to miss school! Therefore, I skipped
school (sorry, parents), took the bus downtown [...] and saw the very first show on opening day."
Another young film enthusiast who saw the film on opening day was Brad Bird,
who would later direct such hit films as Ratatouille and The Incredibles. He described
to CNN what happened in the theater when Darth Vader appeared on screen for the first time.
"The audience simultaneously boos and hisses like it's a silent movie."
In the mid to late 1970s, there weren't a lot of movies with broad,
cross-generational appeal being released, which is another reason why Star Wars did so well.
Speaking to the official Star Wars website on the 40th anniversary of the film's release,
artist Paul Bateman revealed that his father wasn't really interested in
seeing a space movie at first, but he ended up having the time of his life.
Bateman fondly recalled...
"When we arrived at the theater, the line to buy tickets was around the block, and
Dad was bored waiting in the line. However,
not too long after the opening scenes, my dad became just as engrossed in the film as I was.
He was cheering and reacting along with every adult and child in the audience."
California native Fred White had just turned eight years old when Star Wars came out,
and despite knowing absolutely nothing about the film,
he was hugely excited when his father told him they were going to see it.
White reminisced about that day to CNN...
"He said, 'It's called Star Wars.' I clearly remember thinking,
'Star Wars, that's a weird name.' We saw it that day, and I never thought it sounded weird again."
Like so many kids his age, Star Wars became a huge part of White's childhood,
and he has shared a special bond with his dad since that day. They even started a Star Wars
tradition and went to the opening day of the next two films together.
One of the reasons Star Wars managed to stay in theaters for so long
was because people were returning for repeat viewings.
There was even a healthy competition breaking out among the fledgling
fandom. When the topic came up on Reddit, one user recalled seeing Star Wars over a dozen times.
The Redditor wrote...
"It was absolutely the coolest thing ever.
Saw that sucker 14 times that summer. First movie I ever went to see more than once."
"What do you want to do tonight? Oh, and if you say, 'See Star Wars again,' I'm leaving."
"You don't want to leave."
Another Reddit user recalled seeing it at least once a week for the entire
summer after getting his initially reluctant friends hooked on the film.
"When it finally made it to the discount theater,
we went as groups every weekend through year's end."
Of course, going to see a movie isn't free. It's all well and good when you're an adult
with a job to support your new Star Wars obsession, but how did kids in the 1970s
manage to see the film so many times? Well, 13-year-old Russell Burgos and his friend Scott
maximized their budget by getting three showings for the price of one.
He admitted to CNN...
"[We] rode our bikes seven miles to the biggest cinema in our area, waited on line
three hours, and then sat through three viewings in a row, hiding behind the screen
curtains and in the emergency exit stairwells while the theater was cleaned between shows."
In a passionate Medium article, Star Wars fan Rob Conery said that seeing the movie in theaters
at age nine was a life-altering experience for him, reminding younger film fans just
how unique it was at the time. According to Conery, it wasn't just the visual effects
that made Star Wars unlike anything people had seen before, it was the whole package.
He wrote…
"Most movies you would go see as a kid were kind of crappy. I remember really liking Escape to
Witch Mountain and the Herbie movies, but as I grew older I wanted something more.
More adventure and, yes, a little bit of suspense and scariness, too.
We just didn't have that back then — it was all goofy Disney dreck."
That all changed when Star Wars came along. According to Conery,
it was the perfect escape activity for the pre-internet age,
when kids didn't have endless entertainment at their fingertips.
Conery added…
"There was absolutely nothing like Star Wars when it came out. I'm struggling to come up with some
relevant analogy for movies today; something that makes you jump up and scream, that alters your
life profoundly and makes you believe in space travel, exotic alien planets, and the Force."
Much like Conery, fans from around the globe had their eyes and minds
opened to endless possibilities by this film.
"You've taken your first step into a larger world."
Patty Hammond, creator of the Everyday Fangirl blog, won tickets to see Star Wars from a local
TV station. The trouble was, the theater was a 40-mile round trip-journey from her family home.
Hammond wrote about the experience for StarWars.com…
"Back then, the freeway system was not what it is today, and a trip to the theater took
over an hour. However, with Dad being a big science fiction fan, we decided to do it."
Lucas' space opera more than lived up to her and her father's expectations.
Hammond elaborated...
"When we came out of the theater he said,
'Mark my words! This movie WILL become a classic.' Boy, did he predict that one."
Of course, back then, it wasn't uncommon to drive to a movie
and see it without ever having to leave your vehicle. Star Wars played as a double feature
with Smokey and the Bandit at a number of drive-in theaters, including one in Kansas,
where CNET's Bonnie Burton was watching in awe from the back of a pick-up truck.
Burton remembers with wonder the experience of seeing Star Wars outdoors...
"I can't adequately express the fun of watching Skywalker blow up the Death
Star on a big screen beneath a sky full of twinkly stars.
As an imaginative kid, it was hard to see where the Star Wars galaxy ended
and our own night sky began. After that experience, I'd stare up at the sky throughout
my childhood hoping to see the Millennium Falcon zip by Earth on its way to Coruscant."
One of the reasons that Star Wars got such an enthusiastic welcome in 1977 is because there
wasn't a whole lot of joy at the time. George Lucas' debut feature THX 1138 was a dark,
gritty sci-fi experience, but he grew up adoring characters like Flash Gordon and
wanted to capture that type of magic with an uplifting tale of good versus evil.
Lucas' vision apparently didn't go down well among veteran sci-fi writers,
who didn't want to see the genre watered down for younger viewers.
August Ragone, who saw the movie on opening day, told Tested…
"They hated that Star Wars legitimized sci-fi. But at the time, we needed Star
Wars. We had a recession, we had an energy crisis, and we needed some
serious escapism. It was the perfect adventure movie for a kid and the kid in everyone."
According to Ragone, Star Wars lifted and connected people.
The longtime sci-fi fan also said…
"It was a moment in time and a shared experience that happened in cities all across America.
It caught everybody off guard, and something like that hasn't happened since."
Even veteran broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite spoke highly of the film when he
was interviewed for the documentary Empire Of Dreams – The Story Of The Star Wars Trilogy.
Cronkite had this to say...
"George Lucas' Star Wars lifted us out of our [...] depression of the '70s and
into an awareness and focus on space, and its possible future. This movie stood by itself."
Lucas, himself, had a similar perspective on the film and why it was so successful…
"It's been a long time since people have been able to go to the movies and see a,
sort of, straightforward, wholesome, fun adventure.”
Believe it or not, some people weren't that into Star Wars when they saw it on the big
screen in 1977. While many veteran film critics, such as Roger Ebert,
waxed lyrical about the film, some of his peers were definitely not impressed.
Joy Gould Boyum wrote in The Wall Street Journal…
"There's something depressing about seeing all these impressive cinematic gifts and all
this extraordinary technological skill lavished on such puerile materials."
"I find your lack of faith disturbing."
It's hard to understand now but some viewers were so underwhelmed that
they actually walked out of the film. Speaking to StarWars.com,
fan Denise Steil revealed that she watched the majority of the movie
alone at a theater in small town Mississippi after her friends decided to get up and leave.
"We arrived a little late, as usual, just as Artoo and Threepio were walking across the
sands of Tatooine. About 15 minutes later, my friends declared the movie to be 'lame'
and walked out. I stayed, by myself, and fell in love with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo,
and Princess Leia. I met with them again the following night and again the following weekend."
Although it's tame by today's standards, for some younger viewers, Star Wars was actually
a little too violent. In the U.K., one young girl complained about the scene in which Alec Guinness'
Obi-Wan Kenobi protects Luke and slices off Ponda Baba's arm with a swift stroke of his lightsaber.
"It was exciting, but I didn't like the bit when the man chopped off the person's arm."
"Why not?"
"Cause there was blood!"
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