On This Day

Enter the Dragon released

August 19th 1973

13:46 19 August 2024

The premiere of 'Enter the Dragon' took place at Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on this day in 1973. To date it remains the most successful martial arts film ever made and the last completed film to star Bruce Lee who died a month before the movie was released aged 32. An American and Hong Kong co-production, 'Enter the Dragon' combined martial arts action with elements of spy movies as well as the emerging blaxploitation genre, making it hugely popular with a worldwide audience, and lead to a global box office gross of $350 million against a budget of just $850,000.

'Enter the Dragon' made Bruce Lee a screen icon and its influence on action movies is as significant today as it was more than fifty years ago.