by S.J. Borger Tuesday 10th June 2014

Napoleon Dynamite Turns Ten!

Ten years ago, the world got its first taste of tater tots, quesadilla’s and 1% skim milk (not to mention Napoleon, Pedro, Rex, Deb, Grandma, Summer, Lafawnduh and Starla) and Napoleon Dynamite became the little film that could.

Made for under $500,000 dollars, in 22 days, Napoleon Dynamite had an extremely successful Sundance premiere, culminating in a partnership with Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film went on to gross almost $47,000,000 in worldwide sales and become a lasting part of the pop culture landscape.

(l-r) President of Fox Searchlight Steve Gilula opened the ceremony and introduced Q&A moderator Anthony Breznican (Entertainment Weekly) who chatted with writer/director Jared Hess and cast members including Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Diedrich Bader, Haylie Duff, Sandy Martin, Shondrella Avery and Carmen Brady.
(l-r) President of Fox Searchlight Steve Gilula, Haylie Duff, Shondrella Avery, Carmen Brady, Diedrich Bader, Jon Heder, Sandy Martin, Jared Hess, Tima Majorino, Efren Ramirez and Fox Searchlight President Nancy Utley, at the statue unveiling for ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ on June 9, 2014.
Photo Courtesy of Fox Searchlight and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, Fox Searchlight and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment are not only releasing a special Blu-ray + DVD combo pack (complete with liger fur packaging), they also declared June 9th “Napoleon Dynamite Day” and kicked off the festivities on the Fox lot yesterday with an unveiling of a Napoleon Dynamite statue.

Fox Searchlight Presidents Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley spoke, and the cast reminiscenced about making the movie before the statue was unveiled.

The anniversary Blu-ray/DVD combo is available for purchase now for $14.96 at Amazon.Com.