8 Movies That Were Changed AFTER They Were Released

4. George Lucas Put Together A Completely Different Sound Mix (Star Wars: A New Hope)

Star Wars Episode 1 A New Hope Poster
20th Century Fox

The original three Star Wars films have been tinkered with so many times that we'd be here all week if we discussed every instance, but there's one big change that few people know about - or even remember - and it happened right around the time the first Star Wars film was released back in 1977.

Because Fox didn't have much faith in Star Wars, it was only released on a small number of screens (at first), but on the plus side, the studio wanted to show the film in the best possible picture and sound quality, and so, they put it into theatres with 70mm projection systems and full Dolby surround.

However, the majority of cinemas at the time only had 35mm projectors and mono sound systems, so after George Lucas and his team had finished and released that initial cut for 70mm screens, they had to go back to the film and put together a separate mono audio mix for those... less-capable theatres.

But pure sound quality wasn't the only change Lucas focused on - some of the dialogue and sound effects were directly altered, and the mono mix even contained some extra dialogue that wasn't in the surround mix (for example, a Stormtrooper saying "close the blast doors!"). In addition, Rebel pilots didn't have distortion effects added to their over-the-radio voices in the mono mix, making for a cleaner sound.

The changes weren't exactly movie-altering, but they marked one of the first times - of many - that Lucas has tweaked his magnum opus.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!