On June 23, 1989, Tim Burton’s noir spin on the well-known story
of the DC Comics hero Batman was released in theaters.
Michael Keaton starred in the film as the multimillionaire Bruce
Wayne, who has transformed himself into the crime-fighting
Batman after witnessing his parents’ brutal murder as a child.
On June 20, 1975, Jaws, a film directed by Steven Spielberg that
made countless viewers afraid to go into the water, opened in
theaters. The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New
England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the
highest-grossing film in movie history until it was bested by
1977’s Star Wars.
Jaws was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture
category and took home three Oscars, for Best Film Editing,
Best Original Score and Best Sound. The film, a breakthrough
for director Spielberg, then 27 years old, spawned several
sequels.
Steven Spielberg (77)
Jaws put the now-famed director on
the Hollywood map.
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.
