re: Star Wars questions for any old timers

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There may not have been big hype in Louisiana, but there was plenty of hype elsewhere.

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Eventually there was hype: LINK

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It’s hard to remember a day when Star Wars wasn’t a towering cultural and marketing event, but on May 25, 1977, it was a smallish movie opening on a Wednesday in just 32 theaters.

There was no premiere.

“Theaters didn't want the movie. We were lucky to get thirty theaters to open it,” Charles Lippincott, former Lucasfilm promotions chief later said of the troubled and much-delayed production.

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That's how much hype there was. Theaters didn't even want it.

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There were rave reviews in many newspapers and Time magazine’s May 30 cover proclaimed it “The Year’s Best Movie,” but the movie began playing in mostly-empty theaters.

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This website has a good rundown of the slow expansion of Star Wars in the Summer of '77.

LINK

They had to open as they were able to make new prints of the film. The studio wasn't prepared for such a wide distribution. They started in April with 32 theaters and made enough prints to expand to over 1,000 by August.

There was little hype because the studio didn't know what they had. Once the national papers and magazines picked up on it the buzz started. But that was after it had been in the theaters for a month.