Though most fans would find it hard to believe, there was a time when Star Wars was a huge gamble. Gary Kurtz, the producer of the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, had to face a world of skeptical studios executives who couldn't fathom George Lucas' outer space fantasy ever becoming a crowd-pleaser. "The atmosphere in the studios was not very partial to sci-fi," recounts Kurtz. Even the most popular sci-fi film at the time had been a meager success in the eyes of Hollywood executives. "2001 had come out in 1968 and took six years to make its money back," he says. But Alan Ladd Jr. at 20th Century Fox had enough faith in Star Wars to greenlight the project. "It was the cheapest film that they had on their slate that year; everything else was more expensive, so even if they didn't make their money back and just broke even, it would be okay," says Kurtz. In the almost three-decades since the debut of Star Wars, the movie landscape has changed so radically that the quieter days of 1977 seem almost alien in comparison. "In the box office takings nowadays, the opening weekend is the key thing. In the '70s, the style of release was quite different," says Kurtz. "Most films were platformed, which means they were tried out in a few cinemas, and then expanded over time. In this case, we were stuck, as Star Wars was one of the first films with Dolby Surround sound and Dolby stereo mix. We only opened in cinemas which had Dolby stereo installed, and cinemas were so reluctant that Fox had to guarantee they would recoup the costs of the installation, and said they were willing to pay for the costs of removing the equipment if cinemas didn't want to keep it!" From the initial 32 theaters on May 25, 1977, Star Wars's release grew to encompass hundreds of theaters, but it was still just a fraction of the number of theaters most big films open nowadays. What contributed to its box office success was months, not weeks of steady business. "It was never in more than 600 cinemas at one time," says Kurtz, "but it played for a long time; some ran the films for six months! You'd never have that these days. A big film will open in 4,000 cinemas and be gone in three months." The dramatic uphill struggle to make Star Wars is extensively documented in Empire of Dreams, the feature-length documentary found on the Star Wars Trilogy DVD that debuts on September 21. Kurtz is one of the dozens of personalities interviewed in the film. In the coming weeks, keep checking starwars.com for a more extensive look at the making of this long-awaited DID set as the countdown continues to September 21.
I love how the entire article is about the opening in '77, then says, "oh ya, be sure to get the DVD's in September"