---
title: "Which came first, the Macintosh or Star Wars?"
description: "the Macintosh vs Star Wars: Star Wars came first, by 7 years — 1977 against 1984. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/macintosh-vs-star-wars/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the Macintosh or Star Wars?

**Which came first, the Macintosh or Star Wars?: Star Wars**

1977 — 7 years before the Macintosh

Star Wars came first, by 7 years. The first film opened in 32 American cinemas.

## Side by side

|  | the Macintosh | Star Wars |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1984 | 1977 |
| Date | 1984-01-24 | 1977-05-25 |
| Category | technology | media |
| What happened | Apple launched the first Macintosh, two days after the Super Bowl advert. | The first film opened in 32 American cinemas. |

## the Macintosh

The Macintosh launched in January 1984 with a graphical interface and a mouse, and beat Windows to market by almost two years. Neither invented the idea — Xerox PARC had built the Alto in 1973, and both Apple and Microsoft were working from what they had seen there. Mac OS X, the ancestor of today's macOS, arrived much later in 2001 and is Unix underneath.

## Star Wars

Star Wars opened in May 1977 on fewer than forty screens because the distributor had little faith in it, and it went on to be the highest-grossing film made to that point. Fox let Lucas keep the merchandising and sequel rights in exchange for a lower directing fee, a decision that transferred an extraordinary amount of money. It is eleven years younger than Star Trek.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the Macintosh or Star Wars?

Star Wars, by 7 years — 1977 against 1984.

### When did the Macintosh start?

1984. Apple launched the first Macintosh, two days after the Super Bowl advert.

### When did Star Wars start?

1977. The first film opened in 32 American cinemas.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]