While the world was yet to refer to the film as A New Hope, Wednesday May 25th 1977 was the day that 32 cinemas across the United States welcomed the dawn of a new cinematic age as Star Wars arrived. Adding 8 more cinemas on the Thursday and Friday, the film would immediately begin breaking box office records on its way to becoming the highest grossing film in movie history.
In today’s inflation adjusted figures, only Gone With The Wind, released 38 years before Star Wars in an era prior to the rise of television, has taken more money. Reaching far beyond the confines of the big or small screen, Star Wars has grown to become a cultural phenomenon and a way of life for millions of fans across multiple generations, so as we always do on May 25th we say ‘Thank you George’.
(Also we must remember to wish a happy 38th birthday to Return of the Jedi, arriving 6 years to the day since A New Hope arrived and breaking many of the records set by Star Wars on its way to becoming in it’s day the third highest grossng film ever in North America behind only E.T and Star Wars. 25th May also marks the 3rd anniversary of the criminally underrated Solo: A Star Wars Story.)
