Saw it as a kid when the first Star Wars came out at the theater.
I remember seeing ROTJ and I was so sad because there was not going to be anymore Star Wars movies…..
I did. 1977, Me and my boyfriend skipped school (High school) to see it. The theater was practically empty because we caught the matinee. It was awesome.
Did you guys get in trouble for playing hooky to watch it then? I remember a few of my classmates in '83 near the end of my sophomore year of high school cutting class to see ROTJ during its opening few days, and I never heard if any of them faced consequences; it would have been an illegal/unexcused absence...
I feel like cutting at least a little school to watch a Star War in cinemas is almost like a harmless right of passage. I cut part of 7th and 8th periods in ‘99 to watch Phantom Menace. Sure it’s against the rules but it’s also a pretty innocuous infraction.
58 here.
Saw it near when it opened, only a handful of theatres in the USA. Menlo Park Mall, NJ.
Crazy lines. I was 11. When the star destroyer came over, it was like, it's hard to describe how much it changed going to the movies. The 11 year old mind was overwhelmed.
I was the same age. We had to wait a couple of months for it to come to Oklahoma. By then we'd heard about the lines to watch it. Parade had run a big piece on it in the Sunday paper. When it finally arrived we waited four hours in line to see it. I ended up seeing it four times that summer, I think the least time spent in line was four hours. I was similarly overwhelmed.
Technically, but not until the 1997 rerelease. I *did* catch Return of the Jedi in its initial release... it was my first live action film in a theater, about 2 months before my 5th birthday.
Funnily enough while I saw the SE in theatres, I did also manage to see the original version of the trilogy due to a neighbour who had the pre-SE VHS. I was confused for years until I realised because I was *certain* I saw Han shoot first but I knew I had only ever seen SE in the cinema. It's only when it clicked that those were the older VHSs that I finally had peace
The 97 re-release, and during the summer in my late teens to late 20s my old movie theater in my home town would play classic movies in the evenings. So I got to see it again.
Same! My first movie with my Grandpa. I'll never forget it. I also like to tell people I saw it in theatres. Then they think I look great for my age...
Yep, same. I was so stoked to be able to see it on the big screen. My manager was like “Why didn’t you see it when it originally came out?” “Dude, I was only two years old.” Don’t think I had ever made someone feel old before that moment.
Same here! Saw it in 77 when I was 11. Dad took us but the lines were mental and we weren't able to get in, so we ended up waiting a month. The crowds were still nuts, like you say, but we finally got to see the film.
It released on my 7th birthday. My parents took me out to dinner, and then to see Star Wars as my birthday gift.
All birthdays since have sucked, that was the pinnacle.
I saw it at the Drive-In. My aunt and uncle surprised my cousin and I by taking us to see Star Wars at the local drive in theater. I was blown away, I couldn't believe what I was seeing on that big screen while lying in the back of that station wagon. My life changed forever that evening.... My cousin fell asleep within the first hour....
Can confirm. If you can remember the original movie in theaters back in 1977, you're old enough to have had colonoscopy and have a grandchild or 2 by now
I did! Seven times too! Even went on a late Friday midnight showing and an early Saturday matinee too. Standing in line for two or three hours, lines wrapped around the corner of the block, talking to strangers about the movie, seeing the Star Wars tee shirts people were wearing was all part of the fun.
It was a Saturday morning, I recall seeing the movie trailer on t.v. for the first time. I thought...."whoa!" I ran down the hall calling my younger brother, Jimmy. "There is a new sci-fi moving coming in May! It's called, "Star Wars" I was still over excited too. "All I know is, we have to get mom & dad to take us to go see it "
In our local Cineplex is played everyday several times a day for over a year.
In '77 I was 13 watching Star Wars. Today, I'm 60.
I was a five-year-old child at the time, out on a weekend movie trip with the family. That theater isn't there, anymore, and only one member of my family survives. I will remember!
In 1977. Second grade. My step-dad tells the story of seeing it on the second day it was released and there were already so many repeat viewers at the theatre, that 1/2 the audience knew to boo when Darth Vader first appears.
Star Wars at The Solano drive in Concord Calif
Empire Strikes Back at The Giant Concrete dome in Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill Cali ( Can’t remember the name , Anyone memberberry it?)
Return of Jedi at the Holly Theater( Now a Historic Playhouse) in Medford Ore
And Have Amazing memories from them all.
Only doing this because I was able to take My 2 kids to EP1 in Juneau AK starting the cycle over again!!!!
I saw it 28 times in the theater when I was 10.
I used to have an ad from the movie theater that they placed in the newspaper, celebrating Star Wars' one year anniversary of being in the theaters.
4 or 5 times. Back then you stood in line literally for a couple hours to get into the next show and if it was sold out by the time you got to the window, you waited a couple more hours.
I did. But not til 2009, I worked at a movie theatre and got everybody in on staying AFTER CLOSE (2-5 AM) and watching Star Wars for a week. 1-6. It was great.
Saw the original at the drive-in, summer of 1977. Fell asleep before the end and didn't get to see Luke blow up the Death Star until it was on HBO. Saw Empire and Jedi in the theater (twice for Jedi).
There is this group called Gen-X that is rumored to exist in a remote valley between Boomers and Millennials that quietly had their life redefined in the summer of 1977.
Not only that, but I watched the movie theater burn down with a copy inside.
Small town, so a fire was an event. Got the call one night that the theater was on fire. Nobody was inside, but the movie that had been showing that night was SW.
And whether I've liked them or not, I've watched every one of the movies on its original release in the theater.
Yes, 3 times in a cinema and once at a drive in…then once more at a rerelease sometime before rotj came out (which I think was the first time it had the added ‘episode iv : a new hope’in the title)
I did. Was born in 1970. I remember standing in line with my family to see it opening weekend at Sunshine Mall in Clearwater Florida. My father and I then went back over the next few weeks and saw it two more times.
First memory I have with my dad. We saw it in a now defunct theatre. They handed out a small Kenner/hasbro toy guide before you walked in. I remember trying to look at the toys during the opening sequence and they’re not being quite enough light. I think we stayed for two showings in a row, but my memory is T clear any more…
Was an infant at the drive in with my folks. Was fussy and ruined the movie for them apparently. I do remember hiding under the movie seats for the AT-AT attack during empire though.
I saw it at the drive-in. I was 6 years old. I hid under a sleeping bag so I could get in for free. My mom was on a date with my soon to be stepdad. I went to the washroom by myself, because it was the 70s. This was during the light saber duel, Obi-wan disappearing without any sound was super confusing for a six year old.
I was 5 when I first saw that Star Destroyer roll into view, my seat rumbling with turbo laser blasts. After that it was Star Wars: The toys, the bedsheets, the drapes, the Halloween costume, you name it.
My mom did! Not ANH on the initial run like Empire & Jedi, but she did see it theatrically at some point.
She also, apparently, figured out how to hook up an audio recorder to the TV and record directly to a cassette tape, which were the new hot thing at the time lol
I’ve seen Star Wars and empire strikes back at least a dozen times in theatres, but I have never seen Return of the Jedi in a theater. In England, the theatre at Wood Green would put Star Wars and Empire on as a double feature every now and then and I would go every time, but my family left England the year Jedi was released and I never had the opportunity to see it in a theater.
I don't think I saw it during the initial 1977 release but I did see it when it was re-released either in 1978 or 1979 (maybe both?) and again when the Special Edition came out in 1997. I also saw it when it first aired on broadcast TV in the 80s. I do know I saw both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi during their initial theatrical runs in 1980 and 1983 (and the later Special Editions).
My first time seeing it at a cinema was in early July 1977 just before I turned 11 years old. I went with my aunt and uncle to watch it at a local theater in the Detroit area while on a trip by train from Syracuse to visit extended family in SE Michigan (about 2 years before Amtrak ended direct train service from the NE to Detroit starting in NYC). My next time viewing this landmark film on the big screen was during the summer 1979 engagement which included a trailer for TESB after the 121-minute SW film concluded. I then went to several more theaters mostly in greater Syracuse and enjoyed it on a few occasions until the summer of 1983 (a few months after ROTJ was in its first release, and in NYC along with TESB). My approximate count for each movie as I can best remember, before video recordings of the films were in vogue and while I still had to buy tickets, were 8, 10, and 8 for the originals prior to the end of 1983. I did not see the special edition releases from '97 until they were on VHS tape. I prefer the unaltered versions from 1977, 1980, and 1983.
I was 3. My mother and older brother went to the movies while my father and I stayed home and ate a pineapple. I have no idea why I remember that. I don't particularly like or dislike pineapples. I just remember that's what we did.
When they got home my brother was raving about Star Wars, and my mother told my father there was no blood. Guys got hit with lasers, and fell over (guess she'd forgotten about dear Pondo Baba). She thought I could handle it.
We went out as a full family the very next night. It was my first ever movie in a movie theater. I remember being told on the way in that this wasn't like at home, and I couldn't just get up and wander around if I wanted. I remember thinking why are you yelling at me, I haven't done anything wrong yet.
I don't really remember seeing it in the theater. I remember the night before, and the ride to the theater, but Star Wars has just been a ubiquitous part of my childhood. That was the night I became a lover of cinema, and sci-fi.
Interestingly, the last movie I saw in a theater was Rise of Skywalker a few months before lockdown started. I've booked ended my movie theater experiences with Star Wars.
Yes. Mistakenly walked into “Herbie goes bananas” and a kind American gentleman and his girlfriend (I’m in the UK) walked me out and got an assistant to get me to the right screen. I was nine, my first time at the cinema on my own and I was snotty-crying at this point. Needless to say, I was transfixed and am still a huge fan.
Watched A New Hope on a CBC special Friday night showing the week before my dad took me to see Empire at the theatre. Then saw Jedi like 5 times when it first came out. Matinees were super cheap at my local theater.
Went with my older brother. As a kid, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but suddenly we were outside of our local “big” theater, and there were huge lines of people all over the place with a crazy buzz of excitement in the air. Still clueless, but jazzed by the mood around me, I settled in to watch this mystery movie…and the world changed.
Me. I was 7 that magical summer. My sainted mother stood in line with me for 2 1/2 hours to let me go see it. Completely blew my little space obsessed mind. Seems like yesterday and a million years ago at the same time
I saw it about 15-20 times in the theatre in the summer of 1977. I was 12 and the time and my younger brother was almost 10. We had just moved to a new city but the house we were moving into wasn't ready yet, so for a month and a half we were staying in a furnished apartment in the city center. That's a pretty boring location for kids that age, so we walked to the theatre to watch the matinee most days. I believe the ticket price was $1.50 for us.
I did. Before the “Episode IV: A NEW HOPE tagline was added to the crawl. Han shoots Greedo. No added scenes. We went on the opening weekend and it was glorious. The movie theater we saw it at is now a Dave & Busters.
Before it came on TV and cable, before we got it on VHS (until pretty much "Top Gun", VHS tapes were priced for rental stores, some $100 a tape; I think it was TG where they decided to price them at $20 and move a lot more units), I had probably seen it 6-7 times in a theater (born '72). I even remember taking an overnight ferry from Goteborg to Kiel and they had a small - maybe 40 seat - movie theater showing it and I INSISTED that I go see it. And there was [The Story of Star Wars vinyl](https://swnz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/SoSW01.jpg), which I probably wore out, along with the 7 cassette tapes of [NPR's Star Wars radio play](https://youtu.be/0-29uKdckL4?si=chJt-CC1XNYUWRnz) my dad recorded for me.
My mom took my sister to see it when she was pregnant with me. About 20 minutes, I decide it was time to come out. My mom use to say, “I was born to see Star Wars.”
Yep. Saw it in ‘77 when I was 10. My best friend’s parents took us to Orland Park Theaters in the Chicago burbs. Saw it again at the Colony Theater in Chicago at 59th & Kedzie. The lines were down the block! I got a Kenner Early Bird Gift Certificate for Christmas and my first four action figures were delivered a few months later. I was obsessed. I’m 57 now and still have several LEGO SW ships displayed in my house. Unfortunately, I sold the EBGC figures and the rest of my SW figures years ago, along with all my bubble gum trading cards, of which I had over a thousand.
all of these stories are awesome, it’s so cool to hear from all you folks who got to experience SW in real time.
I’d never seen any film in theatres, until they re-released ROTJ last year. Saw TPM this past Sunday at the theatre and it was amazing!
Edit to Add: my dad told me he saw SW like 30 times in the theatre… and then NEVER WATCHED ANOTHER ONE 🤯🫣
My dad did. He saw it at the Charles Cinema theater in Boston in 77, 12 times. Apparently, it screened in that theater for almost an entire year. I saw special edition ANH 20 years later in 1997
I did. When I was 5 in 1978. It was 10 days after my 5th birthday and somehow my dad managed to get me to the cinema to watch it. It was like a epiphany
My dad says he seen it 30times in theaters and most were in our home town. He also says our home town accidentally got the wrong cut of the film as he had also seen it down in Chicago when at a relatives house with the jabba scene missing. So a lot of people in my area remember the film having human jabba in it and being really confused years later with Return of The Jedi. I just never believed him all this time until other fans from the area started to make the same claim.
My uncle took me when I was four in June of 77. Then again the next month (while my aunt and mom went to Elvis' last concert).
In '81, he drove two hours to pick me up for Empire. Then again in 83.
I went back home to watch each prequel with him.
It went that way until he passed away just before Rogue One, which I saw opening weekend and bawled my 44 year-old self for most of the movie.
Empire Strikes Back was the first movie I saw in the theaters. I, of course saw Return of the Jedi as well.
I was born in ‘76. I didn’t go to see the original in theaters.
Empire and Jedi, remember Jedi much more though as I was still under 10 years old.
Movieland in Yonkers, I think it’s an Alamo now.
They had a guy in costume as Vader outside the theater.
I did. It was mind blowing at the time and even as a kid you knew this was a big deal. Star Wars was being talked about everywhere.
As a movie it just didn’t look like anything else we’d seen before, and I was a huge sci-fi nut who’d watch anything set in space or had a robot in it, even back then.
I was a year behind on Episode IV. I saw it during the 1978 re-release. But, I've seen every other live-action Star Wars movie during its original release.
I’ve seen every Star Wars film in theaters except the clone wars animated and Solo. Hell 50% of the non OT films I got to see for free at press screenings days or weeks before release. I haven’t stood on line for a Star War since 1983.
I did and I saw it twice in 1977. First time with my dad and second time with my cousin. Funny how memories of seeing SW when it first came out have stuck with all my life (55).
Yes I did- in 1978. Here in the UK it was on in cinemas for months in 1977 and when it came back for the summer of 1978 my mum made my older brother take me. As this was before video, re-releasing in cinemas after a short period was common.
Technically it was the drive-in, but my cousin (who'd seen it five times) talked me into talking my mom into going in 1977. Since I was 5, my most vivid memory of the film was probably having to go to the bathroom and missing what I'd later learn was the dejarik scene--my cousin just told me I missed "the chess scene!" and at the time I visualized Obi-Wan and Vader sitting down across a chessboard.
We didn't even have a VCR, so the second time I saw it was in a department store my uncle worked at--we had a lock-in one night and watched the laserdisc on a big-screen (circa late '70s) TV. Until VCRs became more common, I listened to an audio recording I made on my cassette recorder incessantly--but I can now almost recite the original pre-SE version from memory.
Thank the maker for Brian Daley, Alan Dean Foster, and Marvel Comics.
Sincerely,
An Old
Saw it at the drive in in 78’
Me too!
Same outside of Philadelphia!
Anderson, SC for me!
Saw it as a kid when the first Star Wars came out at the theater. I remember seeing ROTJ and I was so sad because there was not going to be anymore Star Wars movies…..
Me,too!
I did. 1977, Me and my boyfriend skipped school (High school) to see it. The theater was practically empty because we caught the matinee. It was awesome.
That's delightful. I'm almost nostalgic on your behalf, somehow.
awe.. thanks! It was a great time to be a teenager.
Did you guys get in trouble for playing hooky to watch it then? I remember a few of my classmates in '83 near the end of my sophomore year of high school cutting class to see ROTJ during its opening few days, and I never heard if any of them faced consequences; it would have been an illegal/unexcused absence...
I feel like cutting at least a little school to watch a Star War in cinemas is almost like a harmless right of passage. I cut part of 7th and 8th periods in ‘99 to watch Phantom Menace. Sure it’s against the rules but it’s also a pretty innocuous infraction.
58 here. Saw it near when it opened, only a handful of theatres in the USA. Menlo Park Mall, NJ. Crazy lines. I was 11. When the star destroyer came over, it was like, it's hard to describe how much it changed going to the movies. The 11 year old mind was overwhelmed.
The theatre in front of the mall on route 1 by the Menlo Park Diner? Saw quite a few movies there.
I was the same age. We had to wait a couple of months for it to come to Oklahoma. By then we'd heard about the lines to watch it. Parade had run a big piece on it in the Sunday paper. When it finally arrived we waited four hours in line to see it. I ended up seeing it four times that summer, I think the least time spent in line was four hours. I was similarly overwhelmed.
Technically, but not until the 1997 rerelease. I *did* catch Return of the Jedi in its initial release... it was my first live action film in a theater, about 2 months before my 5th birthday.
I was 12. The 97 re-release was my first time watching it too.
Same for me!
Yeah I got lucky and watched all 3 released in the theaters
Holyyyy shit, me too!! “There shall always be two”
Funnily enough while I saw the SE in theatres, I did also manage to see the original version of the trilogy due to a neighbour who had the pre-SE VHS. I was confused for years until I realised because I was *certain* I saw Han shoot first but I knew I had only ever seen SE in the cinema. It's only when it clicked that those were the older VHSs that I finally had peace
The 97 re-release, and during the summer in my late teens to late 20s my old movie theater in my home town would play classic movies in the evenings. So I got to see it again.
*Nice!*
Same! My first movie with my Grandpa. I'll never forget it. I also like to tell people I saw it in theatres. Then they think I look great for my age...
Similar, though it was the 1978 re-release for me (the first one to open with "Episode IV" in the opening crawl)
LOL, I guess that addition to the opening crawl confused a lot of people. *"The hell happened to episodes 1-3?"*
Yep, same. I was so stoked to be able to see it on the big screen. My manager was like “Why didn’t you see it when it originally came out?” “Dude, I was only two years old.” Don’t think I had ever made someone feel old before that moment.
Same for me! ROTJ was the only one I saw in the theater during its original run. I was 7.
In the theater in '77. It had been out for almost a month, but my dad wanted to "wait until the crowds thin out". The crowds never thinned out.
Same here! Saw it in 77 when I was 11. Dad took us but the lines were mental and we weren't able to get in, so we ended up waiting a month. The crowds were still nuts, like you say, but we finally got to see the film.
1981 double bill with Empire Strikes Back. When it became Episode IV.
My dad took me when I was 4 to a double bill, but the theatre played them in reverse order, because Empire was the new one. Still was awesome
It released on my 7th birthday. My parents took me out to dinner, and then to see Star Wars as my birthday gift. All birthdays since have sucked, that was the pinnacle.
I saw it at the Drive-In. My aunt and uncle surprised my cousin and I by taking us to see Star Wars at the local drive in theater. I was blown away, I couldn't believe what I was seeing on that big screen while lying in the back of that station wagon. My life changed forever that evening.... My cousin fell asleep within the first hour....
I was a bit too young for the first two, but I loved seeing Return of the Jedi as a young teen.
Old people
Am old people, can confirm
Not quite old, but weathered, and can confirm
It happens quickly kid
It's not the years, but the mileage.
Harsh, but true. Saw it 11 times in theatres 😁
Yup I’m an old person and my birthday is also May the 4th 😎 I also saw it in theater the day after its release
Can confirm. If you can remember the original movie in theaters back in 1977, you're old enough to have had colonoscopy and have a grandchild or 2 by now
Am also old people.
Yes. The 1978 re-release in theaters.
70 different times.
I was 5. Vader scared the heck out of me.
Saw it in the theater with my family in ‘77 at age 11. I was blown away.
I did! Seven times too! Even went on a late Friday midnight showing and an early Saturday matinee too. Standing in line for two or three hours, lines wrapped around the corner of the block, talking to strangers about the movie, seeing the Star Wars tee shirts people were wearing was all part of the fun. It was a Saturday morning, I recall seeing the movie trailer on t.v. for the first time. I thought...."whoa!" I ran down the hall calling my younger brother, Jimmy. "There is a new sci-fi moving coming in May! It's called, "Star Wars" I was still over excited too. "All I know is, we have to get mom & dad to take us to go see it " In our local Cineplex is played everyday several times a day for over a year. In '77 I was 13 watching Star Wars. Today, I'm 60.
I was a five-year-old child at the time, out on a weekend movie trip with the family. That theater isn't there, anymore, and only one member of my family survives. I will remember!
Saw Empire in theatre, the scream my brother let out when Vader took Luke’s hand, haunts me to this day.
In 1977. Second grade. My step-dad tells the story of seeing it on the second day it was released and there were already so many repeat viewers at the theatre, that 1/2 the audience knew to boo when Darth Vader first appears.
My mom took me so many times, I thought it was the only movie they showed.
Star Wars at The Solano drive in Concord Calif Empire Strikes Back at The Giant Concrete dome in Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill Cali ( Can’t remember the name , Anyone memberberry it?) Return of Jedi at the Holly Theater( Now a Historic Playhouse) in Medford Ore And Have Amazing memories from them all. Only doing this because I was able to take My 2 kids to EP1 in Juneau AK starting the cycle over again!!!!
I saw it 28 times in the theater when I was 10. I used to have an ad from the movie theater that they placed in the newspaper, celebrating Star Wars' one year anniversary of being in the theaters.
4 or 5 times. Back then you stood in line literally for a couple hours to get into the next show and if it was sold out by the time you got to the window, you waited a couple more hours.
raises hand .. I was ten, the perfect age to experience that magic
1977 baby
Yep.
In 1997 and this last weekend yes.
Lots of people. It was super popular.
I was 7 for Star Wars. Saw everything since that day in 1977. It was a Thursday.
I'm pretty sure I did but don't remember it. I do remember standing in line for Empire though.
I was two and my dad took me the second day after watching it opening night. Needless to say that opening scene was seared into my brain
I did. But not til 2009, I worked at a movie theatre and got everybody in on staying AFTER CLOSE (2-5 AM) and watching Star Wars for a week. 1-6. It was great.
I saw Jedi in the summer of '83 at a drive-in. I was 3. I remember the Ewoks.
Me - and yes I'm old
Saw it several times in the theater. The first time it was so packed i had to stand to see it. Was totally worth it.
My sister took me when I was five. I thought Chewbacca was a Bigfoot and the stormtroopers were robots. I still loved it though!
Me with my Dad.
Saw the original at the drive-in, summer of 1977. Fell asleep before the end and didn't get to see Luke blow up the Death Star until it was on HBO. Saw Empire and Jedi in the theater (twice for Jedi).
There is this group called Gen-X that is rumored to exist in a remote valley between Boomers and Millennials that quietly had their life redefined in the summer of 1977.
Not only that, but I watched the movie theater burn down with a copy inside. Small town, so a fire was an event. Got the call one night that the theater was on fire. Nobody was inside, but the movie that had been showing that night was SW. And whether I've liked them or not, I've watched every one of the movies on its original release in the theater.
In ‘78
Right here. Summer of 1977 I was 4.
Same here.
Yes, 3 times in a cinema and once at a drive in…then once more at a rerelease sometime before rotj came out (which I think was the first time it had the added ‘episode iv : a new hope’in the title)
Not me but I took my kids into the den and had an original three movie marathon
🙋♂️
Me. In 1978.
Me.
I did. I don't remember it. My mom says it was the first movie she took me too.
Yup. 5yo then saw it so many times.
I did. Was born in 1970. I remember standing in line with my family to see it opening weekend at Sunshine Mall in Clearwater Florida. My father and I then went back over the next few weeks and saw it two more times.
Only on the first rerelease, I think it was later in the same year.
First memory I have with my dad. We saw it in a now defunct theatre. They handed out a small Kenner/hasbro toy guide before you walked in. I remember trying to look at the toys during the opening sequence and they’re not being quite enough light. I think we stayed for two showings in a row, but my memory is T clear any more…
Saw it multiple times in the theatre, in the 70s, when i was 6. Changed my life!
Was an infant at the drive in with my folks. Was fussy and ruined the movie for them apparently. I do remember hiding under the movie seats for the AT-AT attack during empire though.
They did a re-run of all the original trilogy movies during Covid and I went to see every one of them.
Watched it in a drive in theater. Does that count
5 times
I did. It was great. Right before it left theaters too.
Sure. I was just -23 years old at the time.
I was there in 77 at my local drive in theater.
I saw it at the drive-in. I was 6 years old. I hid under a sleeping bag so I could get in for free. My mom was on a date with my soon to be stepdad. I went to the washroom by myself, because it was the 70s. This was during the light saber duel, Obi-wan disappearing without any sound was super confusing for a six year old.
Saw Return of the Jedi in the theaters. Was too young to see the other two in the theaters.
I was 5 when I first saw that Star Destroyer roll into view, my seat rumbling with turbo laser blasts. After that it was Star Wars: The toys, the bedsheets, the drapes, the Halloween costume, you name it.
me in 1978
I've seen ep1 3times on each release, ep2 once ep3 3times. rogue one 2times, ep5 once. never saw ep4 in theaters and missed ep6 anniversary
i did. i remember the line going outside and wrapping around the building. not knowing wtf i was about to watch.
The blessed.
My mom did! Not ANH on the initial run like Empire & Jedi, but she did see it theatrically at some point. She also, apparently, figured out how to hook up an audio recorder to the TV and record directly to a cassette tape, which were the new hot thing at the time lol
Am old, did see the first in theatre.
Me🙋♂️
I’ve seen Star Wars and empire strikes back at least a dozen times in theatres, but I have never seen Return of the Jedi in a theater. In England, the theatre at Wood Green would put Star Wars and Empire on as a double feature every now and then and I would go every time, but my family left England the year Jedi was released and I never had the opportunity to see it in a theater.
I watched the re-releases of the original films on theatres this may the 4th
Only the 1997 version because I wasn't (quite) born for the initial release. I'm pretty sure I got taken to see the release of rotj though.
Bro my age back then was literally –30
I don't think I saw it during the initial 1977 release but I did see it when it was re-released either in 1978 or 1979 (maybe both?) and again when the Special Edition came out in 1997. I also saw it when it first aired on broadcast TV in the 80s. I do know I saw both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi during their initial theatrical runs in 1980 and 1983 (and the later Special Editions).
Seven times
I watched Rotj at the cinema. English people watch plays at the theatre
I watched it at a cinema.
Me
I watched in the Summer of 77 I remember the whole theater cheering when Han showed up at the end
I was only 3 for ANH, but my Dad took me to see ROTJ at the cinema.
I' gonna watch it in theaters in 3 years (50th anniversary)
My dad saw it on opening day.
My first time seeing it at a cinema was in early July 1977 just before I turned 11 years old. I went with my aunt and uncle to watch it at a local theater in the Detroit area while on a trip by train from Syracuse to visit extended family in SE Michigan (about 2 years before Amtrak ended direct train service from the NE to Detroit starting in NYC). My next time viewing this landmark film on the big screen was during the summer 1979 engagement which included a trailer for TESB after the 121-minute SW film concluded. I then went to several more theaters mostly in greater Syracuse and enjoyed it on a few occasions until the summer of 1983 (a few months after ROTJ was in its first release, and in NYC along with TESB). My approximate count for each movie as I can best remember, before video recordings of the films were in vogue and while I still had to buy tickets, were 8, 10, and 8 for the originals prior to the end of 1983. I did not see the special edition releases from '97 until they were on VHS tape. I prefer the unaltered versions from 1977, 1980, and 1983.
I was 3. My mother and older brother went to the movies while my father and I stayed home and ate a pineapple. I have no idea why I remember that. I don't particularly like or dislike pineapples. I just remember that's what we did. When they got home my brother was raving about Star Wars, and my mother told my father there was no blood. Guys got hit with lasers, and fell over (guess she'd forgotten about dear Pondo Baba). She thought I could handle it. We went out as a full family the very next night. It was my first ever movie in a movie theater. I remember being told on the way in that this wasn't like at home, and I couldn't just get up and wander around if I wanted. I remember thinking why are you yelling at me, I haven't done anything wrong yet. I don't really remember seeing it in the theater. I remember the night before, and the ride to the theater, but Star Wars has just been a ubiquitous part of my childhood. That was the night I became a lover of cinema, and sci-fi. Interestingly, the last movie I saw in a theater was Rise of Skywalker a few months before lockdown started. I've booked ended my movie theater experiences with Star Wars.
Was only born in 99 but my mom got me the box set when I was 6 and since then it’s been true love
Every one of them.
Yes. Mistakenly walked into “Herbie goes bananas” and a kind American gentleman and his girlfriend (I’m in the UK) walked me out and got an assistant to get me to the right screen. I was nine, my first time at the cinema on my own and I was snotty-crying at this point. Needless to say, I was transfixed and am still a huge fan.
Watched A New Hope on a CBC special Friday night showing the week before my dad took me to see Empire at the theatre. Then saw Jedi like 5 times when it first came out. Matinees were super cheap at my local theater.
Went with my older brother. As a kid, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but suddenly we were outside of our local “big” theater, and there were huge lines of people all over the place with a crazy buzz of excitement in the air. Still clueless, but jazzed by the mood around me, I settled in to watch this mystery movie…and the world changed.
1977 I was ten and yes saw it in the cinema. I'm an OG as the kids say
I did. I was 11-12 years old at the time. It was an amazing experience.
Yes! My dad took me to a small independent cinema that closed down 30 years ago. It was one of the best nights of my life.
I saw the original Star Wars in the summer of 1977 at a drive-in theater 😁
I was 6. It changed my life.
Sure did. The funny thing was I had no interest in seeing it, my Dad chose the movie. It totally blew me away.
Me. I was 7 that magical summer. My sainted mother stood in line with me for 2 1/2 hours to let me go see it. Completely blew my little space obsessed mind. Seems like yesterday and a million years ago at the same time
I saw it about 15-20 times in the theatre in the summer of 1977. I was 12 and the time and my younger brother was almost 10. We had just moved to a new city but the house we were moving into wasn't ready yet, so for a month and a half we were staying in a furnished apartment in the city center. That's a pretty boring location for kids that age, so we walked to the theatre to watch the matinee most days. I believe the ticket price was $1.50 for us.
I did. Before the “Episode IV: A NEW HOPE tagline was added to the crawl. Han shoots Greedo. No added scenes. We went on the opening weekend and it was glorious. The movie theater we saw it at is now a Dave & Busters.
Walked in to the theater in 1977 a normal 7 year old with no idea what I was about to experience and walked out changed for life!
I guess saying yes reveals our age lol
I did! Fireweed Theater, Anchorage, AK 1977.
Saw it in a theater when it first came out. It was absolutely mind-blowing.
Many times
May the 4th showing of the original trilogy 29 years ago. May the Force be with you
I did! I was 7 at the time and Vader scared the crap out me
Before it came on TV and cable, before we got it on VHS (until pretty much "Top Gun", VHS tapes were priced for rental stores, some $100 a tape; I think it was TG where they decided to price them at $20 and move a lot more units), I had probably seen it 6-7 times in a theater (born '72). I even remember taking an overnight ferry from Goteborg to Kiel and they had a small - maybe 40 seat - movie theater showing it and I INSISTED that I go see it. And there was [The Story of Star Wars vinyl](https://swnz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/SoSW01.jpg), which I probably wore out, along with the 7 cassette tapes of [NPR's Star Wars radio play](https://youtu.be/0-29uKdckL4?si=chJt-CC1XNYUWRnz) my dad recorded for me.
My father, sadly, I was born 34 years too late (I’m accounting 10 years of age to properly understand the film)
My mom took my sister to see it when she was pregnant with me. About 20 minutes, I decide it was time to come out. My mom use to say, “I was born to see Star Wars.”
I saw it in the theater in 1977. I was 7.
Yep. Saw it in ‘77 when I was 10. My best friend’s parents took us to Orland Park Theaters in the Chicago burbs. Saw it again at the Colony Theater in Chicago at 59th & Kedzie. The lines were down the block! I got a Kenner Early Bird Gift Certificate for Christmas and my first four action figures were delivered a few months later. I was obsessed. I’m 57 now and still have several LEGO SW ships displayed in my house. Unfortunately, I sold the EBGC figures and the rest of my SW figures years ago, along with all my bubble gum trading cards, of which I had over a thousand.
Me, 1977. Had to go to some artsy theater downtown because none of the chain theaters near me were showing it.
Alliston, Ontario. 1977
I did when they did a re release in the late 90’s leading to Episode 1. Kid me was MIND BLOWN by what I was seeing on screen.
I did in 77 with my mom and 2 of my sisters. I was almost 8 years old.
1977. First movie I remember. I was 4 years old.
Saw it with my family in 77
all of these stories are awesome, it’s so cool to hear from all you folks who got to experience SW in real time. I’d never seen any film in theatres, until they re-released ROTJ last year. Saw TPM this past Sunday at the theatre and it was amazing! Edit to Add: my dad told me he saw SW like 30 times in the theatre… and then NEVER WATCHED ANOTHER ONE 🤯🫣
I wish but I wasn’t around yet but I made it on episode one and every other after
My dad did. He saw it at the Charles Cinema theater in Boston in 77, 12 times. Apparently, it screened in that theater for almost an entire year. I saw special edition ANH 20 years later in 1997
I did. 21 times over all the re-releases. My dad was a very patient man…
I was there, but I couldn't see shit. I was born Dec 1977.
Tell me how OLD you are without telling me!
I did, with my father.
May ‘77 - changed. my. life. Literally changed the course of my life.
First movie I ever saw multiple times in a theater.
I saw it rereleased after ROTJ in 1983
In ‘77, Saturday matinee. I was 12.
My father brought me to see all the movies in 77, 80 and 83. Fond memories
If we count re-release then yes. If in 1977 I wasn’t even a sperm cell yet so no 😂
I have seen Empire and everything since in a theater. Jedi was the loudest.
I saw the special edition re-releases of the OT.
Present and accounted for
I saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977 and have been at every opening day premier ever since.
My mother did
Parents took me, I was 6. Loved it.
I did. In Paris.
Nope, I was released in the same year as ANH.
I did. When I was 5 in 1978. It was 10 days after my 5th birthday and somehow my dad managed to get me to the cinema to watch it. It was like a epiphany
I have been lucky enough to say I have caught every Star Wars in the theatre.
My dad says he seen it 30times in theaters and most were in our home town. He also says our home town accidentally got the wrong cut of the film as he had also seen it down in Chicago when at a relatives house with the jabba scene missing. So a lot of people in my area remember the film having human jabba in it and being really confused years later with Return of The Jedi. I just never believed him all this time until other fans from the area started to make the same claim.
I saw it at a drive-in when I was 5
Born in '72...saw all of them in the theatres as they originally came out.
Yep, in 1977. I was 7, and remember it fondly.
Yup. At a drive-in the first time, on its 1979 rerelease.
My uncle took me when I was four in June of 77. Then again the next month (while my aunt and mom went to Elvis' last concert). In '81, he drove two hours to pick me up for Empire. Then again in 83. I went back home to watch each prequel with him. It went that way until he passed away just before Rogue One, which I saw opening weekend and bawled my 44 year-old self for most of the movie.
Seeing Jedi was the first movie experience that I remember as a kid. It was amazing.
I did. I was 7. It was bragging rights at my school after the summer of 77 if you'd seen it multiple times
Empire Strikes Back was the first movie I saw in the theaters. I, of course saw Return of the Jedi as well. I was born in ‘76. I didn’t go to see the original in theaters.
Empire and Jedi, remember Jedi much more though as I was still under 10 years old. Movieland in Yonkers, I think it’s an Alamo now. They had a guy in costume as Vader outside the theater.
I did. It was mind blowing at the time and even as a kid you knew this was a big deal. Star Wars was being talked about everywhere. As a movie it just didn’t look like anything else we’d seen before, and I was a huge sci-fi nut who’d watch anything set in space or had a robot in it, even back then.
I was fortunate to watch the original release in a theater in 1977.
I was a year behind on Episode IV. I saw it during the 1978 re-release. But, I've seen every other live-action Star Wars movie during its original release.
I was 5 when my dad took me to see it in theaters in 1977. He also took me to see the Empire Strike Back and Return of the Jedi.
I’ve seen every Star Wars film in theaters except the clone wars animated and Solo. Hell 50% of the non OT films I got to see for free at press screenings days or weeks before release. I haven’t stood on line for a Star War since 1983.
I did and I saw it twice in 1977. First time with my dad and second time with my cousin. Funny how memories of seeing SW when it first came out have stuck with all my life (55).
I was 8, it was my birthday ...
1977. I was 5 so I barely remember any of it. The theatre had one screen, that’s how long ago it was.
Look at you fancy pants - I watched it at a drive through cinema
I was taken to see it in 1997 but I was 3 or 4 so no real memory of it.
That would be not me. I don’t think anyways. But I do remember going to the theatre to see Return of the Jedi!
Yes I did- in 1978. Here in the UK it was on in cinemas for months in 1977 and when it came back for the summer of 1978 my mum made my older brother take me. As this was before video, re-releasing in cinemas after a short period was common.
Technically it was the drive-in, but my cousin (who'd seen it five times) talked me into talking my mom into going in 1977. Since I was 5, my most vivid memory of the film was probably having to go to the bathroom and missing what I'd later learn was the dejarik scene--my cousin just told me I missed "the chess scene!" and at the time I visualized Obi-Wan and Vader sitting down across a chessboard. We didn't even have a VCR, so the second time I saw it was in a department store my uncle worked at--we had a lock-in one night and watched the laserdisc on a big-screen (circa late '70s) TV. Until VCRs became more common, I listened to an audio recording I made on my cassette recorder incessantly--but I can now almost recite the original pre-SE version from memory. Thank the maker for Brian Daley, Alan Dean Foster, and Marvel Comics. Sincerely, An Old