Editing The Red Shoes (1948 film) (section)

===Box office===
''The Red Shoes'' had its premiere in London on 22 July 1948, and its general release in the United Kingdom was on 6 September 1948. Upon its initial release in the United Kingdom the film was a low-earning picture, as the [[Rank Organisation]] could not afford to spend much on promotion due to severe financial problems exacerbated by the expense of ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' (1945). Also, according to Powell, the Rank Organisation did not understand the artistic merits of the film, and this strain in the relationship between The Archers and Rank led to the end of the partnership between them, with The Archers moving to work for Alexander Korda.{{sfn|Powell|1986|pages=650–651}}

Despite a lack of advertising, the film went on to become the sixth most popular film at the British box office in 1948.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49930940 |title=The Starry Way|newspaper=[[The Courier-Mail]] |location=Brisbane |date=8 January 1949 |access-date=11 July 2012 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/Screen_Volume_32_Issue_3/page/n17|magazine=Screen|page=258|volume=32|issue=3|date=Autumn 1991|title=The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry|first=Janet|last=Thumim}}</ref> According to ''Kinematograph Weekly'' the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1948 Britain was ''[[The Best Years of Our Lives]]'' with ''[[Spring in Park Lane]]'' being the best British film and "runners up" being ''[[It Always Rains on Sunday]]'', ''[[My Brother Jonathan]]'', ''[[Road to Rio]]'', ''[[Miranda (1948 film)|Miranda]]'', ''[[An Ideal Husband (1947 film)|An Ideal Husband]]'', ''[[The Naked City (film)|The Naked City]]'', ''The Red Shoes'', ''[[Green Dolphin Street (film)|Green Dolphin Street]]'', ''[[Forever Amber (film)|Forever Amber]]'', ''[[Life with Father (film)|Life with Father]]'', ''[[The Weaker Sex (1948 film)|The Weaker Sex]]'', ''[[Oliver Twist (1948 film)|Oliver Twist]]'', ''[[The Fallen Idol (film)|The Fallen Idol]]'' and ''[[The Winslow Boy (1948 film)|The Winslow Boy]]''.<ref>{{cite book|page=232|title=Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema|last=Lant|first= Antonia|year=1991 |publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref>

The film premiered in the United States at [[New York City]]'s [[Bijou Theatre (Manhattan, 1917)|Bijou Theatre]] on 21 October 1948,{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=74}} distributed by [[Eagle-Lion Films]].{{sfn|McLean|2008|p=137}} By the end of the year, it had earned {{FXConvert|USA|2.2|m|year=1948|index=US-GDP|cursign=$|showdate=no}} in US rentals.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/variety173-1949-01#page/n45/mode/1up "Top Grossers of 1948", ''Variety'' 5 January 1949 p 46]</ref> It ended its run at this cinema on 13 November 1950, playing for a total of 107 weeks.  The success of this run convinced [[Universal Pictures]] that ''The Red Shoes'' was a worthwhile film and they took over the US distribution in 1951. ''The Red Shoes'' went on to become one of the highest-earning British films of all time, with a record-breaking gross of over $5 million.{{sfn|Street|2016|p=109}}{{sfn|Mayer|2003|p=314}}<ref name=topgrossers/>

According to one account, producer's receipts were £179,900 in the UK and £1,111,400 overseas.<ref name="money"/> It made a reported profit of £785,700.<ref name="sue"/><ref>These figures were based on Rank's own records for the company by December 1949. Chapman p 71</ref>