2001: A Space Odyssey had its world premiere on April 2, 1968,
at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C..
Directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written with Arthur C.
Clarke, this landmark science fiction film launched in
theaters shortly after, with its general release starting
April 3, 1968, in New York and other cities.
On March 31, 1999, the writing and directing sibling team of
Lana and Lilly Wachowski released their second film, the
mind-blowing science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix.
The Matrix grossed $27.8 million during its opening weekend,
as well as earning $37.4 million in its first five days.
It surpassed the film Lost in Space and Indecent Proposal simultaneously for having the biggest April and Easter
opening weekends.
The film also had the second-highest opening weekend for
a spring starter film, trailing only behind Liar Liar.
The Matrix won four Academy Awards, for Best Editing,
Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best
Sound.
Lana (left) and Lilly Wachohski.
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 E.T. the Extra-
Terrestrial, which was released on June 11, 1982.
For Spielberg, E.T. marked a return to territory he had first
visited with the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977).
E.T. had stupendous success at the box office, eventually
raking in some $435 million (it was re-released in 1985 and
a special 20th-anniversary edition was issued in 2002). 
Steven Spielberg with E.T.
The original series ran from September 8, 1966 to June 3,
1969 on NBC.
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey had its
world theatrical premiere on April 2, 1968.
Kubrick, whose 1964 Cold War satire Dr. Strangelove had been
popular with audiences and critics alike, was intrigued by
science fiction but felt the genre rarely produced interesting
films.
He became determined to make one, using the sci-fi story The
Sentinel as source material and enlisting its author, Arthur C.
Clarke, as his co-writer.
The film does feature a coherent plot, involving two scientists
and a highly-intelligent computer sent to investigate a mysterious
event near Jupiter, but several scenes—including the film’s now-legendary opening, which seems to depict hominids learning to
use tools after the appearance of a mysterious monolith—are
surreal and highly open to interpretation.
Filming required the construction of a giant centrifuge to serve
as the spaceship’s interior and numerous expensive visual
effects, including a groundbreaking psychedelic sequence near
the end of the film so complex that staff referred to it as the
“Manhattan Project.” Kubrick is said to have removed over 15
minutes from the final cut, which nonetheless ran well over
2 hours.
