Close Encounters is coming back to theaters. Image: Sony

2017 is the 40th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s scifi masterpiece Close Encounters of the Third Kind and to celebrate, it’s coming back to theaters.


After a teaser video was released this week to celebrate World UFO Day, Sony confirms the film will be back on the big screen in the U.S. and Canada for one week starting September 1. There are no details beyond that but you should probably start checking your local theaters for more information.

Close Encounters was originally released November 16, 1977. It was Spielberg’s follow-up to Jaws, which made it highly anticipated indeed. Plus, it was a big, Hollywood, science fiction film mere months after Spielberg’s friend, George Lucas, released his own scifi film, a little movie called Star Wars.


Riding those two things, as well as great reviews, the film was a hit, grossing almost $120 million in the U.S. and nearly $300 worldwide. Later, it went onto get eight Oscar nominations, though it only won one, for cinematography (and who can argue with that?).

Most now look back at Close Encounters not only as a pivotal film in the science fiction genre, but a formative film in Spielberg’s overall development too. With it, he began to find the happy medium between big spectacle and personal stories that would later serve him so well, not the least of which was a few years later with E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Plus, it’s a movie that begs for a giant screen.

For more on the Close Encounters rerelease, keep an eye on www.wearestillnotalone.com.