Decision ‘08

This Memorial Day, Satisfy Your Inner Geek

If you haven’t heard, it’s the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. The original movie was an absolute wonder; I was 9 in 1977 and Star Wars was just about the coolest thing in the history of the world (though even at that young age I knew Close Encounters of the Third Kind (or CE3K, if you were with it) was the better movie). The Empire Strikes Back was pretty damn good, too, but it was downhill after that (the sight of the Ewoks partying in the third movie was the official ‘jump the shark’ point, if you’re keeping score).

It was a different world, then; today, movies open spectacularly, then run aground after a few weeks. In those days, a movie could have a run that lasted for months. Such was the case with Star Wars, which opened in just 43 theaters, pulling in a mere $1.5 million, and never played on more than 1,700 screens or so (today’s blockbusters can open on more than 4,000), yet still managed to become the 2nd-highest grossing movie in domestic history, bested only by Titanic’s average of six viewings by every teenage girl in America.

For those who care, Wired has you more than covered…