After a parade of summer tentpoles, including this weekend’s JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, moviegoers will also be getting two classic summer blockbusters to end the season.
Universal/Amblin will make the most of available IMAX screens in mid-August & over Labor Day weekend to reissue Steven Spielberg’s E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) & JAWS (1975). It’s the first time moviegoers can see either film in IMAX. E.T. lands 8/12 & JAWS surfaces 9/2 (also in REAL D 3D theatres).
For E.T. (pictured), which opened on 6/11/1982, it’s a 40th-anniversary celebration. By now, not everyone remembers Spielberg originally developed E.T. at Columbia, where he’d had huge success with 1977’s CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. Columbia, however, scrapped E.T., reportedly because research said it would only appeal to kids.
Columbia was also developing another script then about an alien visiting Earth. Research gave that project broader playability, so Columbia went with STARMAN, from HALLOWEEN director John Carpenter.
Spielberg, of course, moved E.T. to Universal & the rest is history. E.T. cost $10.5M & grossed $792.9M worldwide. STARMAN, which Columbia made for $22M, opened 12/14/1984 — and wound up doing just $28.7M globally.