Box office
The Godfather was a blockbuster, breaking many box office records to become the highest grossing film of 1972.[182] The film's opening day gross from five theaters was $57,829 with ticket prices increased from $3 to $3.50.[162] Prices in New York increased further at the weekend to $4, and the number of showings increased from four times a day to seven times a day.[162] The film grossed $61,615 in Toronto for the weekend[162] and $240,780 in New York,[183] for an opening weekend gross of $302,395. The film grossed $454,000 for the week in New York[162] and $115,000 in Toronto[166] for a first week gross of $568,800, which made it number one at the U.S. box office for the week.[184] In its first five days of national release, it grossed $6.8 million, taking its gross up to $7,397,164.[185] A week later its gross had reached $17,291,705[186] with the one week gross of around $10 million being an industry record.[187] It grossed another $8.7 million by April 9 to take its gross to $26,000,815.[188] After 18 weeks at number one in the United States, the film had grossed $101 million, the fastest film to reach that milestone.[189][190] Some news articles at the time proclaimed it was the first film to gross $100 million in North America,[167] but such accounts are erroneous; this record belongs to The Sound of Music, released in 1965.[191] It remained at number one in the US for another five weeks to bring its total to 23 consecutive weeks at number one before being unseated by Butterflies Are Free for one week before becoming number one for another three weeks.[192][193]
The film eventually earned $81.5 million in theatrical rentals in the US and Canada during its initial release,[182][194] increasing its earnings to $85.7 million through a reissue in 1973,[195] and including a limited re-release in 1997,[196] it ultimately earned an equivalent exhibition gross of $135 million, with a production cost of $6.5 million.[165] It displaced Gone with the Wind to claim the record as the top rentals earner,[182] a position it would retain until the release of Jaws in 1975.[167][197] The film repeated its native success overseas, earning in total an unprecedented $142 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, to become the highest net earner.[198] Profits were so high for The Godfather that earnings for Gulf & Western Industries, Inc., which owned Paramount, jumped from 77 cents per share to $3.30 a share for the year, according to a Los Angeles Times article, dated December 13, 1972.[167] Re-released eight more times since 1997, it has grossed between $250 million and $291 million in worldwide box office receipts,[N 2] and adjusted for ticket price inflation in North America, ranks among the top 25 highest-grossing films.[199]
Critical response
The Godfather has received overwhelming critical acclaim and is seen as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time, particularly of the gangster genre.[200] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 151 reviews, with an average rating of 9.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "One of Hollywood's greatest critical and commercial successes, The Godfather gets everything right; not only did the movie transcend expectations, it established new benchmarks for American cinema."[201] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned the film a score of 100 out of 100 based on 16 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[202]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times praised Coppola's efforts to follow the storyline of the novel, the choice to set the film in the same time as the novel, and the film's ability to "absorb" the viewer over its three-hour run time.[203] Ebert named The Godfather "The best film of 1972".[204] The Chicago Tribune's Gene Siskel gave the film four out of four, commenting that it was "very good".[205]
The Village Voice's Andrew Sarris believed Brando portrayed Vito Corleone well and that his character dominated each scene it appeared in, but felt Puzo and Coppola had the character of Michael Corleone too focused on revenge.[206] In addition, Sarris stated that Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, and James Caan were good in their respective roles.[206] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote "If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, "The Godfather" is it."[207]
Desson Howe of The Washington Post called the film a "jewel" and wrote that Coppola deserves most of the credit for the film.[208] Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby felt that Coppola had created one of the "most brutal and moving chronicles of American life" and went on to say that it "transcends its immediate milieu and genre".[209][210] Director Stanley Kubrick thought the film had the best cast ever and could be the best movie ever made.[211] Director Steven Spielberg listed it among his favorite films.[212] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote negatively of the film in a contemporary review, claiming that Pacino "rattles around in a part too demanding for him," while also criticizing Brando's make-up and Rota's score.[213]
Previous mafia films had looked at the gangs from the perspective of an outraged outsider.[214] In contrast, The Godfather presents the gangster's perspective of the Mafia as a response to corrupt society.[214] Although the Corleone family is presented as immensely rich and powerful, no scenes depict prostitution, gambling, loan sharking or other forms of racketeering.[215] George De Stefano argues that the setting of a criminal counterculture allows for unapologetic gender stereotyping (such as when Vito tells a weepy Johnny Fontane to "act like a man") and is an important part of the film's appeal.[216]
Remarking on the fortieth anniversary of the film's release, film critic John Podhoretz praised The Godfather as "arguably the great American work of popular art" and "the summa of all great moviemaking before it".[217] Two years before, Roger Ebert had written in his journal that it "comes closest to being a film everyone agrees ... is unquestionably great".[218]
