Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Lobby Card 11x14 Sp.Edt.
USA Original Lobby Card Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Special Edition.On the final cut privilege of the release of Close Encounters, Spielberg was dissatisfied with the film. Columbia Pictures was experiencing financial problems, and they were depending on this film to save their company. "I wanted to have another six months to finish off this film and release it in summer 1978. They told me they needed this film out immediately", Spielberg explained. "Anyway, Close Encounters was a huge financial success and I told them I wanted to make my own director's cut and they agreed. So in 1979, Columbia gave Spielberg $1.5 million to produce what became the "Special Edition" of the film. Spielberg added seven minutes of new footage, but also deleted or shortened various existing scenes by ten minutes, so that the Special Edition was three minutes shorter than the original 1977 release, running 132 minutes.The Special Edition featured several new character development scenes, the discovery of the SS Cotopaxi in the Gobi Desert, and a view of the inside of the mothership. Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition was released in August 1980, making a further $15.7 million, accumulating a final $303.7 million box office gross.
