On June 12th, 1981, the first film in the iconic "Indiana Jones" film series, "Raiders of the Lost Ark", was released in American theaters. It was directed by the great Steven Spielberg, and the screenplay was based on a story by George Lucas. It stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, a archaeologist going against Nazi forces to recover the Ark of the Covenant. After developing the idea for the film in the early 1970s, George Lucas temporarily scrapped the idea in favor of "Star Wars" (1977). The film had a $20 million budget, and made $389.9 million in the box office, even after pre-release polls showed little audience interest. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is now considered one of the greatest films of all time, and paved the way for four more films in the franchise, being released in 1984, 1989, 2008, and 2023.
