On May 25, 1977, Star Wars opened on fewer than forty screens across the United States. At the Avco Center Cinema in Westwood, Los Angeles, lines formed by morning and all seven opening-day shows sold out. The limited release concentrated people eager to discover an unfamiliar space film at one carefully selected theater.
The distributor was not yet certain that such an unusual production would succeed, so theaters had been chosen cautiously. Outside the Avco, however, audience behavior quickly exceeded the marketing plan. The Los Angeles Times later revisited its contemporary account of Los Angeles theaters packed in ways managers and moviegoers had not previously experienced.
This was not a line for the next installment of an already famous franchise. It formed before the film had become a cultural phenomenon, among people trying to secure one of a small number of opportunities to see it. Waiting from morning and moving from one sold-out show to the next made the film’s emerging reputation visible on the street.