National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 1994
“Written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Steven Spielberg, this film chronicles the relationship between a young boy (Henry Thomas) and a benevolent alien who is stranded on Earth and trying to find his way back to his home planet. The film's masterful blending of hopeful innocence with excitement and humor made it both a critical and popular success.”
Universal Pictures · Amblin Entertainment · 115 min
Box office
$792.9M worldwide on a $10.5M budget
Honors
Academy Awards — 4 wins, 9 nominationsGolden Globe Awards — 2 wins, 4 nominationsLos Angeles Film Critics Association — 2 winsBritish Academy Film Awards — 1 win, 8 nominationsAll 20 wins · 27 nominations on record
Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects
Academy Awards: Best Original Score
Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing
Academy Awards: Best Sound
Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture – Drama
Golden Globe Awards: Best Original Score
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Film
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Director
British Academy Film Awards: Best Original Music
Japan Academy Film Prize: Outstanding Foreign Language Film
David di Donatello: Best Foreign Director
National Board of Review: National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Saturn Award: Best Special Effects
Saturn Award: Best Writing
Saturn Award: Best Science Fiction Film
Saturn Award: Best Music
Saturn Award: Best Classic Film DVD Release
National Society of Film Critics Award: Best Director
Boston Society of Film Critics Award: Best Director
Grammy Award: Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media
Scholarship
Named in the title of 28 peer-reviewed works
Examples
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial — 100 Science Fiction Films, 2013
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — A K Peters/CRC Press eBooks, 2010
E.T. the extra-terrestrial — Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter), 1982
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial arrived from Universal in 1982 and became a defining event of Amblin era filmmaking, pairing suburban American childhood with a work of pure emotional science fiction. It was a cultural phenomenon on release, breaking box office records and holding the top spot for years afterward. The film's blend of wonder, longing, and gentle melancholy shaped a generation's idea of what a family film could be, and its imagery, particularly its central creature, became instantly recognizable worldwide, embedded in posters, merchandise, and the broader visual language of eighties cinema.
This cell carries the name E.T. itself, the stranded alien whose friendship with a lonely boy anchors the entire story. As the title figure, E.T. is the object collectors most seek, representing the film's emotional core rather than a supporting or incidental presence. A 35mm cell bearing this name places the viewer close to the character's essential identity within the production, a physical fragment of the reel that carried this presence to theaters. Such pieces are prized as tangible remnants of a film whose central figure remains one of cinema's most enduring and widely loved creations.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean throughout the strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack is visible as a modulated clear-and-opaque stripe along one edge of the picture area; no Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, DTS timecode stripe, or SDDS outer-edge tracks are visible in this capture.
Edge print
Bottom edge reads: 2 383 6 48 255 1 30 KOD · AK 28 2 001 H
Base & colour
Base carries a cyan-teal tint consistent with colour print stock; the dye image reads warm with amber and dark tones, no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
A light horizontal streak or abrasion line is visible crossing the middle frame area, consistent with evidence of a projected print.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be the same or near-identical shot, suggesting a very short interval between frames; image content is consistent with a dramatic interior scene from the film on record.
Era check
The variable-area optical-only soundtrack, Kodak colour print stock edge coding, and cyan-base colour print stock are all consistent with a 1982 theatrical release print era for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000062645
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
