Back To The Past For Back To The Future

When Eric Stolz was replaced by Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly after five weeks of filming Back to the Future, the release date was changed from June 21, 1985, to July 19 to give the production an additional month of time since much of those five weeks of filming had to be reshot. The July 19 release date held for quite some time as evidenced by the  promotional pinback button shown below. However, as Universal became more and more aware that this science fantasy was something very special it was decided that the film should be released on July 3, 1985 (a Wednesday), so as to be in theaters for one of the year's biggest moviegoing days, July 4. So the second button seen below was issued with the new release date. Talk about time travel! Happy 31st anniversary to Back to the Future, released on this date, July 3rd, in 1985.