The Godfather (1972): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• Cinematographer Gordon Willis initially turned down the opportunity to film The Godfather because the production seemed "chaotic" to him.
• On March 23, 1970, Albert S. Ruddy was officially announced as the film's producer, in part because studio executives were impressed with his interview and because he was known for bringing his films in under budget.
• The budget for the film was originally $2.5 million but as the book grew in popularity Coppola argued for and ultimately received a larger budget.
• The world premiere for The Godfather took place at Loews's State Theatre in New York City on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, almost three months after the planned release date of Christmas Day in 1971, with profits from the premiere donated to The Boys Club of New York.
• Some news articles at the time proclaimed it was the first film to gross $100 million in North America, but such accounts are erroneous; this record belongs to The Sound of Music, released in 1965.
• The film is based on Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years.
• Brando, who did not attend the Golden Globes ceremony two months earlier, boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony and declined the Oscar, becoming the second actor to decline a Best Actor award after George C. Scott in 1971.
• Francis Ford Coppola's daughter Sofia, who was still an infant at the time, appears uncredited as Michael Rizzi in the baptism sequence.
• The Godfather was a blockbuster, breaking many box office records to become the highest-grossing film of 1972.
• A week later its gross had reached $17,291,705 with the one week gross of around $10 million being an industry record.
• The film repeated its native success overseas, earning in total an unprecedented $142 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, to become the highest net earner.
• Coppola hired Italian composer Nino Rota to create the underscore for the film, including "Love Theme from The Godfather".
• The Godfather was released on March 24, 1972, throughout the rest of the United States reaching 316 theaters five days later.
• Studio executives had trouble finding a director; the first few candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film, but disagreement followed over casting several characters, in particular Vito (Brando) and Michael (Pacino).
• Before the film premiered, the film had already made $15 million from advance rentals from over 400 nationwide highlighted theaters as part of the marketing promotion plan for the film.

Source: Wikipedia

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