42 years ago today, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released! It was based on an imaginary friend Steven Spielberg created after his parents’ divorce. The movie was filmed from September to December 1981 with a budget of $10.5 million. Unlike a lot of films, E.T. was filmed chronologically to help facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast. Spielberg even kept the puppeteers away from the set to maintain the illusion of a real alien for the kids.
E.T. was designed by Carlo Rimbaldi, who had also designed the aliens for Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He based E.T.’s face on Carl Sandburg, Albert Einstein, and Ernest Hemingway. The puppet was created in 3 months and cost $1.5 million. A team of puppeteers controlled E.T.’s face, while a professional mime filled prosthetics to play E.T.’s hands. His voice was played by an actress named Pat Welsh. She smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day, giving her a raspy voice that the movie’s sound effects creator loved. She recorded her part in 9 and half hours and was paid $380 for her work.
Spielberg approached Mars, Incorprated about using M&M’s in the film, but they refused, believing that E.T. would be too scary for children. So they went to the Hershey Company, who suggested using their newest creation, Reese’s Pieces. The product placement in the movie was hugely successful for Hershey’s, as they reported a 65% increase in profits on Reese’s Pieces just two weeks after the film premiered.
E.T. premiered at the closing film of the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. It was a smash hit at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time. It held that record for 11 years until it was surpassed by another Spielberg film, Jurassic Park. It stayed in theaters for more than a year, giving it one of the longest theatrical runs in history.
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