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 through Miramax after Kevin Smith financed the shoot on credit cards and convenience store wages, turning a black and white, low budget production into a landmark of American independent film. Shot largely in a single New Jersey store, it captured a deadpan, conversation heavy style that helped define the indie boom of the 1990s and made Smith, along with characters like Dante and Randal, instantly recognizable to a generation of filmgoers who saw themselves reflected in retail purgatory and endless debate.
This piece preserves the opening card, the moment before the story proper begins, where the film announces itself plainly, without stars or spectacle, just text on screen setting tone and expectation. Collectors value these cards because they represent the film's first handshake with its audience, the threshold between projector light and narrative. For a movie built on modest means and outsized cultural reach, a card like this stands as a clean artifact of intent, marking Clerks as it introduces its world before a single line of dialogue plays.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour positive theatrical 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, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing or deformation.
Soundtrack
Not visible in this capture; the area beside the picture frames is obscured by the curl and shadow of the strip edges.
Edge print
Upper edge reads, mirrored: '1302 118 TN' — consistent with a Kodak key-number format.
Base & colour
Base appears clear with a slight cool tint; the dye image renders strong saturated colour with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks, or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames show the same title-card graphic, indicating a held or repeated title frame rather than consecutive action frames; the title matches the Clerks (1994) title design on record.
Era check
A colour positive 35mm print with Kodak edge coding is consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print of Clerks (1994), which was distributed on 35mm colour positive stock.
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 000063072
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
