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
FILM NOTES
Released in 1982 by Universal Pictures, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial became a defining event of Steven Spielberg's early career and one of the highest-grossing films of its decade. Its story of a stranded alien befriended by a suburban boy struck a chord with audiences worldwide, blending wonder, warmth, and childhood loneliness into a cinematic touchstone. The film's cultural footprint extended far beyond the box office, shaping how Hollywood approached family filmmaking for a generation and cementing Spielberg's reputation as a master of emotional storytelling paired with technical craft.
This cell preserves a piece of the film's opening credit sequence, the frame where the picture announces itself before the story unfolds. As a title card, it belongs to the small set of collectible cells that mark a film's identity rather than a scene from its narrative, prized by collectors for that distinction. The presence of Elliott and E.T. within this frame ties the introduction directly to the film's central relationship, the boy and the being whose bond gives the story its enduring heart.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly cut with no visible torn or ragged edges.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along the bottom edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single variable-area track with the characteristic white waveform pattern.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer text clearly.
Base & colour
The base appears with a slight cyan-teal tint along the rebate edges; the dye image reads as a warm, saturated positive with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No splices, cue marks, or prominent scratches are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to show the same title-card composition, consistent with a title sequence held on multiple frames; the moon-and-bicycle imagery matches the known title design of the film on record.
Era check
A single variable-area optical soundtrack, four-perforation 35mm format, and cyan-tinted safety base are all consistent with a theatrical release print from the early 1980s era of the film on record.
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 000062754
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
