Editing The Best Years of Our Lives (section)

===Popular response===
''The Best Years of Our Lives'' was a massive commercial success. It opened to the public at the [[Astor Theatre (New York City)|Astor Theatre]] in New York City on November 22, 1946, and grossed $52,236 in its first week. Its length restricted the film to six shows a day, cutting down on total ticket sales, and initially suffered by having a top midweek ticket price of $2.40, reducing gross revenue. It opened at the [[Woods Theatre]] in Chicago on December 18 before a [[roadshow theatrical release]] in Boston and Los Angeles, starting on the evening of Christmas Day.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=January 15, 1947|page=9|title=Goldwyn Points to Wow 'Best Years' Biz To Refute Selznick Nix of 'Problem' Pix|url=https://archive.org/details/variety165-1947-01/page/n347/mode/2up?view=theater|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=January 12, 2024}}</ref> After 12 weeks at the Astor, the film had grossed $584,000 and at that point had grossed $1.37 million from 6 theatres in five cities from 45 play weeks.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=January 15, 1947|page=9|title='Best Years' 750G Take In 5 Cities|url=https://archive.org/details/variety165-1947-02/page/n124/mode/1up?view=theater|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=January 13, 2024}}</ref>

The picture earned $7.65 million in [[theatrical rental]]s at the U.S. and Canadian box office during its initial theatrical run,<ref name=Jewell>{{cite news | title=Richard B. Jewell's RKO film grosses, 1929–51: The C. J. Trevlin Ledger: A comment. | publisher=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Volume 14, Issue 1, 1994}}</ref> ultimately benefiting from much larger admission prices (reflecting its exceptional length) than the majority of films released that year, which accounted for almost 70% of its earnings.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety169-1948-01#page/n62/mode/1up|title=Upped Scale Films Cop 'Win, Place, Show' Spots in Gross Sweepstakes|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=January 7, 1948|page=63|access-date=June 11, 2019|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> When box office figures are adjusted for inflation, it remains one of the top 100 grossing films in U.S. history.

Among films released before 1950, only ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone With the Wind]]'', ''[[The Bells of St. Mary's]]'', ''[[The Big Parade]]'' and four Disney titles have done more total business, in part due to later re-releases. (Reliable box office figures for certain early films such as ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' and [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s comedies are unavailable.)<ref>[https://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm "All-time Films (adjusted)."] ''Box Office Mojo''. Retrieved: September 19, 2010.</ref>

However, because of the distribution arrangement RKO had with Goldwyn, RKO recorded a loss of $660,000 on the film.<ref name="uni">Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'', Uni of California, 2016</ref>