'Clerks' Hit Theaters on This Day in 1994

On this day in 1994, Kevin Smith's independent film Clerks hit theaters and catapulted Smith to indie filmmaking icon.

Smith would spend the next decade exploring the stories of stoners, slackers, and geeks in movies like Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Eventually he would start to move out of that comfort zone, but by then he had become a hero within nerd culture, and while his current crop of bizarre films have a dedicated fan base, he is probably best known for either his initial work or for Comic Book Men, his unscripted series on AMC.

Smith will return to the "Askewniverse" of interconnected movies -- and to the Quick Stop, where he was working as a convenience store employee when he shot Clerks -- next year with Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.

You can see him talking about the anniversary on Instagram below.

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CLERKS was released in theaters 24 years ago today! While “Clerks” is what everybody else calls it, in my head, I call it “The Little Movie That Could.” Or “My Artistic Hail Mary.” When I’m feeling spiritual, I call it “The Wellspring From Which All Blessings Flow.” And when I feel like overstating it, I call it “My Moon Landing” - because that’s what it felt like. For years, I looked to the stars and wondered what it would be like up there. Then one day, this creaky little rocket of a first film became our bridge to the heavens. It was a spacecraft held together with spit, glue, naïveté & determination. And luckily for me, I wasn’t alone: I took the treacherous trip with the greatest astronauts Indie Film ever produced: @briancohalloran, #jeffanderson, @marilynghigliotti, #lisaspoonauer, @davidkleinasc, @samosier and of course, @jaymewes. On this day 24 years ago, our first film slipped the surly bonds of Jers and blasted off into cinema history. 24 years later, some of the Clerks cats have gone on to way bigger things: #scottmosier is about to release his feature animation co-directing debut, The @grinchmovie, while #davidklein has been the cinematographer on @sho_homeland for years now. But for Clerks graduates like me and @jaymewes? Some things never change: we’ll be back out in front of that same Quick Stop when we start shooting our next flick in early 2019, entitled #jayandsilentbobreboot! Thank you to not only my Clerks crew but also everyone who ever gave our l’il flick a try over the last 24 years. You were our rocket fuel! #KevinSmith #clerks #brianohalloran #marilynghigliotti #jasonmewes #jaymewes #indie #indiefilm #1994 #90s #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography

A post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Oct 19, 2018 at 7:44am PDT

In a weird coincidence, today is also the anniversary of the first Blockbuster Video opening.

The video rental giant has only one remaining location at this point, but in the '90s it was a cultural icon ever-present enough to be the establishing shot in the Captain Marvel trailer.

And, because of Clerks's limited initial run and the cult following that Smith garnered, it is likely that a great many fans first saw the movie through home video rentals, at Blockbuster or similar stores.