Meteor (1979) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 30, 1978

Turns out that Meteor did NOT strike leading theaters nationwide in June of 1979. No, production delays brought upon by repeated failures to create usable special effects from an ever dwindling budget pushed the release out of the summer and into the autumn of 1979. Where it landed with a resounding thud. The reverberations of which weakened the financial foundation of American International Pictures to the point a buyout proved necessary.

Those delays also led to the promised John Williams score not happening. Composer Laurence Rosenthal, who I know best for his score for 1981's Clash of the Titans, would score the film. I read the novelization, which had been published in June of 1979, I think, months before the film managed to drop into theaters and drive-ins near me. But I would not see the film until it was either on home video or HBO. I remember watching it on TV, being unimpressed, and thinking the novelization had told the story far better than the finished film. So it goes.