David was able to get Universal Pictures to finance and distribute the film based "on a one-page description," according to Cronenberg.[38] Videodrome was distributed by Universal Pictures in Canada and the United States, and by Les Films Mutuels in Quebec. It was released in six hundred theatres on 4 February 1983.[22]
Cronenberg stated that Sidney Sheinberg regretted giving the film a wide theatrical release rather than treating it as an art film. Around 900 prints of the film were distributed according to Cronenberg, and the film was only in theaters for a short amount of time. Cronenberg stated that Videodrome "wasn't an exploitation sell, and it wasn't an art sell. I don't know what it was."[39]
