Video: 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' trailer

(Friday, June 12, 1981, 11:00 a.m. EDT) — Raiders of the Lost Ark, an American action-adventure film that pits Indiana Jones against the Nazis who search for the Ark of the Covenant because Adolf Hitler believes it will make their army invincible, opened today at Loews Astor Plaza movie theater at 1515 Broadway, between West 44th and 45th Streets, in the Times Square area of Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, and Denholm Elliott.