<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $4.3 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $300 million </Td> </Tr> <P> Smokey and the Bandit is a 1977 American action comedy film starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams and Mike Henry . The film was the directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham . It inspired several other trucking films, including two sequels, Smokey and the Bandit II and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 . </P> <P> There was also a series of 1994 television films (Bandit Goes Country, Bandit Bandit, Beauty and the Bandit, and Bandit's Silver Angel) from original director / writer Hal Needham that were loosely based on the earlier version, with actor Brian Bloom playing Bandit . The three original films introduced two generations of the Pontiac Trans Am, and the Dodge Stealth in the television movie . Smokey and the Bandit was the second - highest - grossing film of 1977 behind Star Wars . </P>

When was the first smokey and the bandit movie made