Learn History Through Fiction: Wizard of Oz a Box Office Failure

Although the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz received positive reviews, the film was initially a box office failure. MGM’s most expensive picture to date, at $2.8 million to make and distribute, it grossed only $3 million, barely recouping its cost. The movie was re-released in 1949 and netted another $1.5 million. Telecasts, beginning in 1956 and an annual tradition through 1991, finally enabled the studio to more than recoup its investment. Read more about the making of the movie and its subsequent history in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).