Firelight (1964 film)

This article is about the 1964 film. For the 1997 film, see Firelight.
Firelight
Directed bySteven Spielberg
Written bySteven Spielberg
Produced byArnold Spielberg
Leah Spielberg
StarringClark Lohr
Carolyn Owen
CinematographySteven Spielberg
Edited bySteven Spielberg (uncredited)
Music bySteven Spielberg (composer)
Arcadia High School Band (performer)
Production
company
American Artist Productions
Distributed byPhoenix Theatre
Release date
  • March 24, 1964 (1964-03-24)
Running time
135 minutes
CountryUnited States
Budget$500[1]
Box office$501[2]

Firelight is a 1964 American science fiction adventure film written and directed by Steven Spielberg at the age of 17.[3][4] Made on a budget of $500, the film was shown at a local cinema and generated a profit of $1.[4] "I counted the receipts that night", Spielberg has recalled, "And we charged a dollar a ticket. Five hundred people came to the movie and I think somebody probably paid two dollars, because we made one dollar profit that night, and that was it."[5][6]

Only three minutes and forty seconds of footage has been made public, about 3% of the original length. Spielberg returned to its subject matter for his third major film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

  1. ^ Fox, Jesse David (21 March 2014). "Watch a Clip From Spielberg's Early Lost Film Firelight". Vulture. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  2. ^ "Steven Spielberg's Micro-Budget 1st Feature Film: Firelight". Filmtrepreneur. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  3. ^ Freer, Ian (2001). The Complete Spielberg. Virgin. pp. 5–8.
  4. ^ a b Bose, Swapnil. "The heartwarming story behind Steven Spielberg's first cinematic successm". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  5. ^ Inside the Actors Studio, with James Lipton interviewing Steven Spielberg.
  6. ^ The profit of $1 would be equivalent to around $10 in 2024 when adjusted for inflation