Forty-five years ago today the first Star Wars movie was released by 20th century fox.
Star Wars Episode IV- A New Hope came out on 25 May 1977. The movie was simply known as ‘Star Wars’ on its first release, and the additional name was given later on. The movie was turned down by several large production companies, who thought the idea would tank. Eventually 20th Century Fox took the movie on, with a relatively small budget of $11 million US dollars.
The movie went on to gross $775 million dollars, and the whole franchise of Star Wars movie has earned $10 billion dollars. In fact adjusted for inflation, the Star Wars movie is the fourth biggest grossing movie of all time, behind Gone with the Wind, Avatar and Titanic.