In a year filled with major re-releases that have sometimes worked better than new movies, Janus Films celebrated the 70th anniversary of an all-time classic this weekend, but in just one theater. Playing at New York’s Film Forum, the 4K restoration of Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai grossed $19,000 across three days, ahead of its expansion in Los Angeles and Boston this Friday. Originally released in 1954, Seven Samurai is perhaps the most influential film of all time.

It tells the epic tale of a group of samurai warriors who fight on behalf of villagers being hounded by local bandits. The epic film starred the Japanese icon Toshirō Mifune, alongside Takashi Shimura and Keiko Tsushima. Seven Samurai runs nearly three-and-a-half hours long, and had a famously troubled production that saw numerous delays and budget issues. It was eventually decided that far too much time and money had been invested in the project to pull the plug on it, and the movie was released to box office success in Japan. Seven Samurai was previously re-released in North America in 2002, grossing over $270,000.

Widely influential, Seven Samurai is often regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It holds a perfect 100% “fresh” rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, and has routinely been ranked inside the top 20 of Sight & Sound magazine’s critics' poll of the greatest movies of all time. Kurosawa won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and the movie was nominated for two Oscars following its stateside release in 1956. Seven Samurai has influenced everything from George Lucas’ Star Wars to Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, as well as the biggest Indian film of all time, Sholay, and Zack Snyder’s recent Rebel Moon movies.

While most re-issues are conducted in a semi-wide format, Janus Films is giving Seven Samurai a platform release of sorts. By comparison, A24 recently re-issued a host of its most memorable movies — Hereditary, Ex Machina, Midsommar, and Uncut Gems — in over 300 domestic IMAX locations. Sony, on the other hand, celebrated the 100th anniversary of its film division by re-releasing every live-action Spider-Man movie in over 400 domestic locations. The 40th anniversary re-release of Ridley Scott’s Alien took place in over 1,700 theaters, while Disney delivered one of the best re-release hauls of all time with Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Other notable recent re-releases include Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy, which turned 25 this year, and the millennial classic Shrek 2, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Audiences also got the chance to watch Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune movie on the big screen, perhaps for the first time, considering it was released bang in the middle of the pandemic originally. Seven Samurai is available to stream on the Criterion Channel in the United States. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.