Writer and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was fired during post-production, due to the quarrels with the then-newly reinstalled Fox President Darryl F. Zanuck over the nature of editing the movie's length. Since he wrote the script as he was shooting, Twentieth Century Fox soon realized that only Mankiewicz knew how the story fit together. He was then brought back to complete the project.
Writer and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz hoped that this movie would be released as two separate movies, "Caesar and Cleopatra", followed by "Antony and Cleopatra". Each was to run approximately three hours. Twentieth Century Fox decided against this and premiered the movie at 4 hours 3 minutes. More cuts pared the movie to three hours fourteen minutes for general release. It is hoped that the missing two hours will be located, and that one day a six-hour "Director's Cut" will be available.
When this movie finally broke even in 1973, Twentieth Century Fox "closed the books" on it, keeping all future profits secret to avoid paying those who might have been promised a percentage of the profits.
Adjusted for inflation, this is one of the most expensive movies ever made. Its budget of $44 million is equivalent to over $411 million in 2024.
A clerical error by Twentieth Century Fox probably cost Roddy McDowall a Best Actor in a Supporting Role Academy Award nomination. The studio erroneously listed him as a leading player rather than a supporting one. When Fox asked the Academy to correct the error, it refused, saying the ballots were already at the printer. Fox then published an open letter in the trade papers, apologizing to McDowall: "We feel that it is important that the industry realize that your electric performance as Octavian in 'Cleopatra,' which was unanimously singled out by the critics as one of the best supporting performances by an actor this year, is not eligible for an Academy Award nomination in that category . . . due to a regrettable error on the part of Twentieth Century Fox."