The landmark film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was released on
this day in history, June 11, 1982.
Then 34-year-old director Steven Spielberg reportedly drew
on his own experiences as an unusually imaginative, often-
lonely child of divorce for his science-fiction classic.
With Steven Spielberg as its director, the film starred Henry
Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert McNaughton and Dee
Wallace.
Director Steven Spielberg with E.T.
On May 25, 1977, Memorial Day weekend opened with an
intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas’ blockbuster
Star Wars movies hit theaters.
The incredible success of Star Wars–it received seven Oscars,
and earned $461 million in U.S. ticket sales and a gross of close
to $800 million worldwide–began with an extensive, coordinated marketing push by Lucas and his studio, 20th Century Fox,
months before the movie’s release date.
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas
ROSS SIMPSON
Citizen Kane is a 1941 drama film directed by, produced
by, and starring Orson Welles. Welles and Herman J.
Mankiewicz wrote the screenplay. The picture was
Welles’s first feature film. Citizen Kane is frequently
cited as the greatest film ever made.
Kane opened at the RKO Palace Theatre on Broadway in
New York on May 1, 1941, in Chicago on May 6, and in Los Angeles on May 8.
Welles said that at the Chicago premiere that he attended
the theater was almost empty.
On March 31, 1999, the writing and directing sibling team
of Lana and Lilly Wachowski release their second film,
the mind-blowing science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix.
On March 24, 1972, The Godfather—a three-hour epic
chronicling the lives of the Corleone’s, an Italian-
American crime family led by the powerful Vito
Corleone (Marlon Brando)—was released in theaters
nationwide.
