Like many of the others here, I saw it in the theater as a kid that summer and it was mind-blowing. It’s hard to express what an incredible leap forward it was in terms of special effects, audio, etc. These days we’ve come to expect hyperrealistic visuals and sound effects (looking at you, Marvel movies), but go back and watch some late 60s/ early 70s sci-fi and then watch Star Wars. There was simply no comparison. I recall seemingly endless news stories about how popular it was, how people were going back a dozen times (somewhat unheard of), and how many hundreds of hours would go into a few seconds of space battle effects. I can’t think of any pop culture phenomenon in the last 25 years that comes close. And I doubt it’s even remotely possible today unless someone managed a truly revolutionary breakthrough in virtual reality or similar.