Read how ‘Star Wars’ fans packed L.A. theaters in 1977

When the ori­gin­al “Star Wars” opened on May 25, 1977, only about 40 theat­ers across the coun­try ini­tially screened the movie. In Los Angeles, fans packed show­ings in ways theat­er man­agers and movie­go­ers had nev­er seen. For the 40th an­niversary of “Star Wars,” we re­vis­it this story ex­amin­ing the earli­est stages of the “Star Wars” phe­nomen­on. The Times ori­gin­ally pub­lished this story on June 4, 1977.