A filmic legend: Columbia passed on "E.T." in favor of making this film.
I liked this pic. Touching perfs by Jeff Bridges (Oscar nomination) and Karen Allen. Spawned short-lived ABC series.

The jet fighter which shoots down Starman's ship is an F-20 Tigershark, a design by Northrop which failed to gain any orders & was there restricted to 3 built (& 2 of them were written off in accidents.)

A filmic legend: Columbia passed on "E.T." in favor of making this film.

OK, way off-topic, but I can't resist giving another great example (direct from my Guinness edition of They Got It Wrong!:

Forget it, Louis. No Civil War picture ever made a nickel.
-MGM's Irving Thalberg advises Louis B. Mayer not to bid for the film rights to [Gone With the Wind] in 1936...

Irving knows what's right.
-...and Mayer takes his advice.

Another wonderful quote along the same lines(and then I'll shut up, promise):

Do you think I'm a damnn fool, David? This picture is going to be the biggest white elephant of all time.
Director Victor Fleming rejects David O. Selznick's offer of 20% of the profits and insists on a flat fee, 1939.

In a similar manner CBS turned down Star Trek because they already had already started screening Lost In Space.

More O.T. - Here's another filmic legend I once heard at a Star Trek convention in the mid - 1970's - Director Arthur Hiller was forced by Paramount to take a percentage of the gross for Love Story, rather than a straight salary, to keep costs down. The movie was a huge hit, and Hiller made millions.
Turnabout is not always fair play: According to IMDB, Donald Sutherland had no faith in the box-office potential of Animal House, and took a $40,000 salary up-front. If he had taken a percentage, he could have made millions.

Guys, let's keep it on topic, please. The Create a New Conversation is active in both the Drama and Comedy Genres.

Great line from this pic: Starman is driving Jenny's Mustang II (just try and find one today), accelerates and almost causes an accident. He says to Jenny, "I did like you. Red light-Stop. Green light-Go. Yellow light-Go Very Fast."