National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2019
“A hilarious, in-your-face, bawdy-yet-provocative look at two sardonic young slackers (Dante and Randal). One toils as a New Jersey convenience store clerk while his alter-ego video store friend works when the mood strikes him.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
Kevin Smith
Studio
Miramax · View Askew Productions · 92 min
Box office
$3.2M worldwide on a $28K budget
Honors
Sundance Filmmaker Trophy Dramatic — 1 winAll 1 wins · 0 nominations on record
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Clerks arrived in 1994 as a shoestring production shot in black and white inside the very convenience store where Kevin Smith worked, released through Miramax at the height of American independent cinema's mainstream breakthrough. Made for roughly 27,000 dollars and championed after its Sundance premiere, it became a touchstone for a generation of filmmakers who saw that dialogue, wit, and a distinct voice could outweigh budget and polish. The film helped define the View Askewniverse and established Smith as a defining voice of 1990s indie comedy, proving that stories about clerks, customers, and dead-end jobs could carry real cultural weight.
This cell preserves the opening credit, the frame that announces the film before a single character speaks. As a piece of 35mm history, it represents the threshold moment of Clerks, the studio and production credits that greeted audiences discovering an unfamiliar name in Kevin Smith. For collectors, this is the entry point of the whole saga, the physical marker of where the View Askewniverse begins, tied inseparably to the film's origin story and its place in independent film history.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour optical release print of Clerks (1994).
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 appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along the lower portion of the strip beside the picture area, appearing as two fine white lines consistent with a stereo variable-area optical track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears clear with a slight warm tint; the dye image reads as a colour positive with saturated hues showing no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Several fine longitudinal lines are visible across the picture area, consistent with projection wear; no splices or cue marks are visible.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to show the same title-card composition, consistent with a title sequence from the animated series Clerks on record.
Era check
A colour variable-area optical stereo track on a clear safety base is consistent with a 35mm release or broadcast print from the mid-to-late 1990s, matching the 1994 production period 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 000063070
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
