{"id":15246598,"date":"2026-08-08T11:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/40-years-ago-today-iconic-film-director-released-first-movie-and-it-was-a-massive-hit\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:33:21","slug":"40-years-ago-today-iconic-film-director-released-first-movie-and-it-was-a-massive-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/40-years-ago-today-iconic-film-director-released-first-movie-and-it-was-a-massive-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"40 Years Ago Today: Iconic Film Director Released First Movie – And It Was A Massive Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day, 40 years ago, one of the most iconic film directors the world has ever seen got his start, releasing his first movie to theaters.<\/p>\n

August 8 marks the anniversary of the release of many popular movies. This includes the likes of Stand By Me<\/em> in 1986, Olivia Newton-John’s fantasy musical called Xanadu<\/em> in 1980 and Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/em> in 2014, among many others.<\/p>\n

And on August 8, 1986, legendary film director Spike Lee, at age 29, released his first full-length movie to theaters, a romantic comedy called She’s Gotta Have It<\/em>, celebrating its 40th anniversary on Saturday.<\/p>\n

She’s Gotta Have It<\/em> follows Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns), a young woman in Brooklyn who chooses to date three different men at the same time, including Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell) and Mars Blackmon (Lee).<\/p>\n

Lee not only directed the one-hour, 24-minute film, but he also starred in it while serving as a writer and producer. And while She’s Gotta Have It<\/em> didn’t win any Oscars, Lee was able to bring home four different awards<\/a> for his first movie.<\/p>\n

She’s Gotta Have It<\/em> Becomes Box Office Success, Launches Spike Lee’s Career<\/h2>\n
\n

Spike Lee wearing a T-shirt from his movie “She’s Gotta Have It.”<\/p>\n

New York Daily News Archive &sol; Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lee didn’t have a huge budget for his first movie, making the film for just $175,000. But She’s Gotta Have It<\/em> became a major success, grossing $7,137,502 at the domestic box office<\/a>, more than 40 times its budget.<\/p>\n

What’s even more impressive is that the movie was shot in just 12 days, and because the budget was so small, there were no reshoots. <\/p>\n

She’s Gotta Have It<\/em> also helped launch Lee’s career, become one of the best filmmakers the world has ever seen. After his first movie, Lee went on to create some other notable hits, including Do the Right Thing<\/em> (1989), Malcolm X<\/em> (1992), Inside Man <\/em>(2006) and BlacKkKlansman <\/em>(2018).<\/p>\n

Related: 1939 Classic Named the \u2018Best Movie Song of All Time\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Source: Life \u2013 Fitness \u2013 mensjournal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this day, 40 years ago, one of the most iconic film directors the world has ever seen got his start, releasing his first movie to theaters. August 8 marks the anniversary of the release of many popular movies. This\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15246600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[317],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15246598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee.jpg",1200,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-620x349.jpg",620,349,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-940x529.jpg",940,529,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee.jpg",1200,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee.jpg",1200,675,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-998x665.jpg",998,665,true],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee.jpg",1200,675,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15246598-shes-gotta-have-it-spike-lee-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"Fitness<\/a>","tag_info":"Fitness","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15246598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15246598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15246598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15246599,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15246598\/revisions\/15246599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15246600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15246598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15246598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15246598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}