When it opened in New York City, ticket prices were $2.00 each, which was considered astronomical at the time. In modern-day currency, accounting for inflation, that would be about $17-$20. The exorbitant ticket prices greatly inflated the box office revenue of the film.
President Woodrow Wilson is famously rumored to have responded to the film with the remark: "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." After the film became subject of controversy due to its heroic portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan, Wilson denied through his press secretary as to having known about the nature of the film before screening it at the White House, or having ever endorsed it. Nevertheless, Wilson's published works as a historian are closely aligned with the film's negative portrayal of Reconstruction (some of his writings are even quoted onscreen in certain prints of the film). Wilson was also notably a consistent pro-segregationist as President.
First film to be shown in the White House on Thursday the 18th of February 1915 within the East Room, to President Woodrow Wilson.
Among the many film techniques that this movie pioneered were panoramic long shots, iris effects, still shots, night photography, panning shots and the careful staging of battle scenes where hundreds of extras were made to look like thousands. It also employed color tinting for dramatic purposes and creating drama through its own musical score.
The excessive use of smoke-bombs in the battle scenes were to obscure the mostly empty battlefield.