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 Pictures in the summer of 1982 and quickly became a defining event of the decade, a Spielberg original built from wonder rather than franchise. It went on to become the highest grossing film of its era, praised for pairing childhood intimacy with genuine spectacle, and it remains a touchstone of American popular cinema, studied for its restraint, its score, and its ability to make a friendship between a boy and a stranded alien feel monumental without ever losing its small, human scale.
This cell preserves Elliott and E.T. together in flight, the moment most tied to the film's identity and its most reproduced image in posters and memorabilia. Elliott is the film's young protagonist, the boy whose bond with E.T. carries the emotional weight of the story, making any frame pairing the two especially sought after. Flight here signals the film's most iconic sequence, the point where friendship becomes freedom. A 35mm cell like this offers collectors a physical fragment of that release print, a tangible link to the actual theatrical run rather than a reproduction.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical 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, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing or distortion.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along the bottom edge, appearing as a dual-band waveform pattern consistent with a stereo optical print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at the resolution shown; no legible key numbers or manufacturer text can be read.
Base & colour
Base shows a slight cyan-green tint typical of Eastman color print stock; the dye image appears neutral with no obvious red shift or fading.
Projection history
Light horizontal streaking is visible across the image area, consistent with projection wear; no splices or cue marks are seen.
Picture
Positive color image; all three frames appear to be from the same continuous shot, and the silhouetted bicycle-against-moon imagery matches the iconic imagery associated with the film on record.
Era check
The cyan-base Eastman stock, dual variable-area optical soundtrack, and KS-type perforations are all consistent with a 1982-era theatrical release print.
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 000062676
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
