It must be kind of annoying if you're a director or a screenwriter and you've been working forever and ever on a movie, thinking it could be something special or thinking finally you could get your big break - all for one other huge, looming release to blow everything out of the water.
That's basically the story of 1977 in cinema. It was a strong year. Woody Allen, despite the disgrace on his name now, released Annie Hall which felt like a landmark moment, merging the rom-com with more candid, artistic cinema. John Travolta made his name in Saturday Night Fever, launching a career that would only grow in power in 1978 with Grease.
The kids had it good too as Disney seemed to manage to revive the art form of animation after interest had been slipping and they'd been focussing more and more on real life action. The Rescuers was a return to form in that way as they brought it back to basics, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh brought a timelessly beloved old bear to the screen.
Historical dramas also did well that year as A Bridge Too Far, a film about the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II brought in a strong box office gross of $50,750,000. There was even a Bond movie that year as Roger Moore took on the role for a third time in The Spy Who Loved Me, and Steven Spielberg released the epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind which brought in $116,395,460.
But still, nothing came close. All of those movies were left in the dust by one huge release, from a galaxy far, far away.
The second Star Wars was released in May 1977, the game was over. Despite this being the first movie in the franchise, it was clear the moment that George Lucas launched the space epic that this thing would be huge. Perhaps no one could ever have predicted the scales it did reach with a massive franchise spanning forms and decades, including endless merch and theme park rides, but still, in 1977, it was already obvious that Star Wars would be something special.
However, before its release, it was the exact opposite. The studio were so unsure and so lacking in confidence in the film that it only got a super limited release in a small number of cinemas. But quickly, it was a blockbuster. Selling out showing after showing, they had to up the scales and release it into more cinemas and keep it there for longer to meet the demand.
It opened to basically universal acclaim from both critics and fans. It was one of those golden moments really where something just falls into place. Lucas' efforts more than paid off, his cast, including some relative unknowns, were all launches into the stratosphere of movie stardom, and the path was clear that quickly, the people were going to want more of this.
No other movie came close. Star Wars grossed $221,280,994, while the second best performing picture, Smokey and the Bandit, only did $126,737,428. It's not even just that Star Wars was the best performer of that year, but it's still the fourth highest grossing movie of all time as it's estimated that by now, the film has made $3,652,000,000 - over three billion dollars.