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 black and white shoestring production shot largely overnight and on weekends inside the very convenience store that gave the film its setting. Distributed by Miramax after a strong reception on the festival circuit, it became a defining document of American independent cinema in the 1990s, proving that dialogue, wit and a shoestring budget could outmatch studio polish. Kevin Smith's debut turned a New Jersey retail counter into a stage for slacker philosophy and pop culture riffing, and it helped launch both his career and the View Askewniverse that followed.
This cell draws its identity from the Quick Stop Groceries setting itself, the store front and interior that anchors the entire film. As a location rather than a single character moment, it represents the mundane backdrop against which the film's rambling conversations and everyday absurdities unfold. Collectors value pieces tied to the Quick Stop because the store functions almost as a character in its own right, inseparable from the film's identity and its low budget, high dialogue reputation.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm 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; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean throughout the visible strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with a mono or stereo optical release print.
Edge print
Not fully legible in this capture; partial markings visible along the top edge but individual characters cannot be reliably read.
Base & colour
Base appears neutral to very slightly warm; the dye image reads as a black-and-white silver image with no visible colour shift or fading.
Projection history
Several fine longitudinal lines are visible running along the length of the strip, consistent with projection wear.
Picture
Positive image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the black-and-white photography is consistent with the known monochrome photography of the film on record.
Era check
A 35mm positive print with variable-area optical soundtrack and black-and-white silver image is fully consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print of Clerks (1994).
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 000063087
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
