Claim: Drew Barrymore starred in a film.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction fantasy film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg , and written by Melissa Mathison . It features special effects by Carlo Rambaldi and Dennis Muren , and stars Henry Thomas , Dee Wallace , Robert MacNaughton , Drew Barrymore , Peter Coyote and Pat Welsh . It tells the story of Elliott -LRB- Thomas -RRB- , a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial , dubbed `` E.T. '' , who is stranded on Earth . He and his siblings help it return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government .   The concept was based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents ' divorce in 1960 . In 1980 , Spielberg met Mathison and developed a new story from the stalled sci-fi horror film project Night Skies . It was shot from September to December 1981 in California on a budget of US$ 10.5 million . Unlike most films , it was shot in rough chronological order , to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast .   Released on June 11 , 1982 by Universal Pictures , E.T was an immediate blockbuster , surpassing Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time -- a record it held for eleven years until Jurassic Park , another Spielberg-directed film , surpassed it in 1993 . It is the highest-grossing film of the 1980s . Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time , critics acclaimed it as a timeless story of friendship , and it ranks as the greatest science fiction film ever made in a Rotten Tomatoes survey . In 1994 , it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being `` culturally , historically , or aesthetically significant '' . It was re-released in 1985 , and then again in 2002 to celebrate its 20th anniversary , with altered shots and additional scenes .