In November 2002, “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” was released nationwide in IMAX theaters. IMAX film is a high-definition format, where the film is literally twice as big as the film used in normal theaters (70mm instead of 35mm). The result is a picture that is bigger, sharper, and more colorful than is found in regular theaters.

As “Attack of the Clones” was the first movie to be filmed, processed, and distributed entirely on a digital format, it presented the IMAX theaters with a unique opportunity to create a 70mm film print that was far superior to anything they had done before. Although they had to remove 23 minutes of film to fit the picture on the projectors, the two hours of movie they were able to convert was truly amazing. Most people who viewed the movie on the 6-story Navy Pier screen knew they were in for a treat as soon as they saw the 20th Century logo.

Navy Pier IMAX was very generous in donating 150 tickets to Chicago Force for an 8 AM showing on the morning of release. Chicago Force in turn donated 80 of our tickets to the Metropolitan Boys Academy, to let some children see the movie that may otherwise not been able to.

It’s not easy getting people out to a movie at 8 o’clock on a Friday morning, but by the time Obi-Wan and Anakin were assigned to protect Senator Amidala, the theater was mostly full.

Here are picture from the first midnight show, and the 8 AM show the next morning: