Editing Casablanca (film) (section)

=== Initial response ===
''Casablanca'' received "consistently good reviews".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stanley |first=John |date=April 5, 1992 |title='Casablanca' Celebrates Its 50th |work=San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote, "The Warners&nbsp;... have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." He applauded the combination of "sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue." Crowther noted its "devious convolutions of the plot" and praised the screenplay quality as "of the best" and the cast's performances as "all of the first order".<ref name="Crowther">{{Cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |date=November 27, 1942 |title='Casablanca', with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, at Hollywood |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C06E1DF1039E33BBC4F51DFB7678389659EDE |access-date=October 26, 2017 |work=The New York Times |page=27}}</ref>

The trade paper ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' commended the film's "combination of fine performances, engrossing story and neat direction" and the "variety of moods, action, suspense, comedy and drama that makes ''Casablanca'' an A-1 entry at the [[Box office|b.o.]]"<ref name="Variety">{{Cite news |date=December 1, 1942 |title=Variety 100 Reviews: Casablanca |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117487980/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111024210616/http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117487980/ |archive-date=October 24, 2011 |access-date=January 1, 2009 |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> The review observed that the "[f]ilm is splendid anti-Axis propaganda, particularly inasmuch as the propaganda is strictly a by-product of the principal action and contributes to it instead of getting in the way".<ref name="Variety" /> ''Variety'' also applauded the performances of Bergman and Henreid and noted, "Bogart, as might be expected, is more at ease as the bitter and cynical operator of a joint than as a lover, but handles both assignments with superb finesse."<ref name="Variety" />

Some reviews were less enthusiastic. ''[[The New Yorker]]'' rated ''Casablanca'' only "pretty tolerable" and said it was "not quite up to ''[[Across the Pacific]]'', Bogart's last spyfest".<ref>{{Harvnb|Harmetz|1992|pp=12–13}}</ref>

At the 1,500-seat Hollywood Theater, the film grossed $255,000 over ten weeks (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|255000|1942|r=-5}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US-GDP}}).<ref name="Francisco 192">{{Harvnb|Francisco|1980|p=192}}</ref> In its initial American release, ''Casablanca'' was a substantial, but not spectacular, box-office success, earning $3.7 million (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|3700000|1942|r=-6}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US-GDP}}).<ref name="Francisco 192" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Harmetz|1992|p=12}}</ref> A 50th-anniversary release grossed {{US$|1.5 million|long=no}} in 1992.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Thomas |first=Bob |date=3 August 1992 |title=Treasure trove: Recycling movie classics financial success for film studio |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/427330404/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=21 April 2022 |work=[[The Paducah Sun]] |page=58 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $3,398,000 domestically and $3,461,000 in foreign markets.<ref name="warners" />