PRODUCTION & EXHIBITION INFORMATION + TRIVIA
The Empire Strikes Back was the first sequel to gross over $100 million at the box office.
The longest, most-successful engagement of Empire was a 61-week run in Seattle at the UA Cinema 150.
Empire was test screened on April 19, 1980, at the Northpoint in San Francisco.
The first public screening of Empire (in finished form) was held on May 17, 1980, in Washington, DC. Attending the event, which took place at the Kennedy Center and was a benefit for the Special Olympics, were director Irvin Kershner, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, producer Gary Kurtz, and stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Frank Oz, David Prowse, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew. Important political figures who attended included Ted Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, Eunice Shriver and Amy Carter (daughter of then-President Jimmy Carter).
Empire was the first Star Wars movie to feature an episode number and subtitle. (The full on-screen title is Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back.) Prints of the original Star Wars were numbered and re-titled a year afterEmpire’s release.
In terms of box-office gross, The Empire Strikes Back is the least successful Star Wars movie. Adjusted for inflation, however, it is the second-highest-grossing movie in the series.
Paul Simon’s 1980 movie, One-Trick Pony, was filmed in New York City during the exhibition of The Empire Strikes Back. Characters can be seen exiting a movie theater playing Empire during one scene. A large Empire logo is visible on an exit door and moviegoers can be seen carrying the film’s program booklets and comic-book adaptation.
Empire won an Academy Award for Best Sound. It also received a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects. (Visual Effects was not a competitive category for 1980.) In addition, the film was nominated, but did not win, in the categories of Art Direction and Original Score. Other awards included four Saturns, one BAFTA, one Grammy, one Hugo, and a People’s Choice award for Favorite Motion Picture. (John Williams’ Best Original Score nomination was his 15th of what has become an astounding 49 nominations, including five wins.)
Principal photography commenced on March 5, 1979, in Finse, Norway, and concluded (several weeks over schedule) on September 24, 1979, at EMI Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, England. The visual effects were created during 1979-80 at Industrial Light & Magic, in Marin County, California.
A fire at Elstree during the production of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining destroyed a soundstage which contributed to Empire going over schedule and over budget.
To complement the existing stages and to make up for the lack of a large soundstage at EMI Elstree Studios, Lucasfilm constructed what became known as the Star Wars Stage, which measured 250 feet long, 122 feet wide and 45 feet high, and was among the largest soundstages in the world. Scenes shot on this stage included all of the scenes featuring the full-scale Millennium Falcon and scenes set on Dagobah.
Cheers and Pixar regular John Ratzenberger appeared in a small role as a Rebel officer.
Empire, at the time of its release, had the industry’s largest one-time order of 70mm prints (124 working prints on opening day, more than a dozen for Release Wave #2, and several more for international release). Some of the markets that played the movie in 70mm that didn’t open until Release Wave #2 included Las Vegas (Parkway), Modesto (Briggsmore), Monterey (Cinema 70), and Tucson (El Dorado). Empire was among eleven first-run movies released with 70mm prints during 1980. Expensive large-format 70mm prints were chosen for the initial and major market presentations of Empire so as to showcase the movie with the best possible projection and sound quality available at the time and to reduce the chances the movie would be pirated and sold on the home-video market.
There were some content differences between the Empire’s 35mm and 70mm prints. The 70mm prints were prepared and distributed first and, as such, more time was available for the filmmakers to finesse the 35mm general-release edition. Ironically, this meant that critics and moviegoers in the major markets did not see the “final” version of the movie. Most of the differences were subtle and editorial in nature, such as a scene beginning or ending with a different transitional effect (wipe pattern, straight cut, dissolve, etc.). Some visual effects were re-filmed and/or re-composited for the 35mm edition. Some scenes featured different takes for selected shots, and the final scene is longer in the 35mm edition, featuring additional spaceship fly-bys, an additional line of dialogue, and a brief music cue borrowed from another scene.
On Day One of its release, the UA Egyptian in Los Angeles and UA Cinema 150 in Seattle began showing Empire at midnight and continued with an all-day marathon.
To be eligible to play Empire during its first wave of release (which commenced May 21st), theaters had to be capable of presenting the movie in 70mm and agree to play the movie for a minimum of 16 weeks with a sliding scale distributor/exhibitor split beginning heavily in favor of the distributor. June 18th was the earliest Empire could be played if a theater was not equipped for 70mm and/or an exhibitor did not wish to commit to the minimum-run terms.
Empire began playing in U.S. military theaters overseas in October 1980 (even though the original Star Wars had not at that time been shown on the Army & Air Force Exchange Service circuit).
The Fox Fanfare & CinemaScope Extension music cue heard in Empire was recorded during the film’s music scoring sessions. The cue heard in the original Star Wars was a 1954 recording heard on many of Fox’s CinemaScope releases. The Empire recording was used on all subsequent Star Wars movies released by 20th Century Fox.
On its first day of release, Empire broke house records in all but two of its engagements.
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. introduced the cinema processor model CP-200 in conjunction with the release of Empire.
As with the original Star Wars, James Earl Jones provided the uncredited voice of Darth Vader. (Jones’ name was added to the credits of the 1997 Special Edition version.)
SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back, an hour-long documentary special, was originally broadcast on CBS-TV on September 22, 1980.
As with the original Star Wars, musician Meco Monardo recorded a disco/rock album based on John Williams’ Empire music. The EP contained four tracks (two of which later appeared on Meco’s Greatest Hits album). Meco also produced a Christmas-themed album, Christmas in the Stars, featuring some vocals by John Bongiovi (aka Jon Bon Jovi).
Empire was re-released theatrically in 1981, 1982 (which included a trailer for Revenge of the Jedi), 1983 (limited-market double feature with Star Wars), and 1997 (restored and expanded by three minutes).
In 2010, for being “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant,” Empire was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
The first time Empire was publically shown in the United States as part of a Star Wars triple feature was on September 3, 1984, at the 42nd Annual World Science Fiction Convention (aka LA Con II) in Anaheim, California…. The first time Empire was commercially shown in a US movie theater as part of a Star Wars triple feature was on March 28, 1985, when the trilogy was screened one time only for charity in nine theaters in eight US & Canadian cities…. The first time Empire was publically shown as part of a six-movie Star Wars Saga marathon was on May 23-24, 2007, at Celebration IV in Los Angeles.
Empire was released on home video in November 1984, fifty-four months after theatrical release. The VHS and Beta tapes were priced for rental ($79.98); the videodisc editions retailed for $29.98.
The first cable television broadcast of Empire was on February 1, 1986. The first network broadcast was on November 22, 1987, on NBC.
The Directors Guild of America attempted to have Empire withdrawn from release so that revised credits could be created so that “An Irvin Kershner Film” credit could appear at the beginning of the movie. The DGA argued that placing principal credits at the end of a film was in violation of guild rules. Lucas countered claiming the credits for Empire were presented in the same fashion as the original Star Wars for which there were no complaints. Lucas also argued that Empire was a non-union production principally shot outside the United States and thus wasn’t bound by the DGA’s rules. The DGA insisted their rules needed to be recognized regardless of where the film was produced since the film’s director was a DGA member. Lucas refused to alter the film’s credits, settled the matter by paying a fine, and subsequently resigned his DGA membership. The Writers Guild then followed suit by fining Lucas, which Lucas paid…and promptly quit that organization, too.
National Public Radio broadcast a multi-part radio adaptation of Empire during February 1983.
As with the original Star Wars, there was no shortage of tie-in merchandise, including fast-food chain promos, Kenner’s continuing line of action figures and playsets, Marvel’s ongoing comic series which included a six-part Empire adaptation (issues 39-44), soundtrack album, a story-of album (the movie condensed to album length with narration), novelization, making-of and art-of books, bed sheets, T-shirt iron-ons, video games, and countless other items. Star Wars merchandise, collectively, has out-grossed the movies on which they are based.
