 After the film had been distributed worldwide and had grossed a  substantial profit of over $39 million, which made it the most  successful independent motion picture of 1976, the films  distributor Edward L. Montoro and Film Ventures International (FVI)  decided to keep the profits, without paying director William Girdler  and the films producers/writers David Sheldon and Harvey Flaxman.  Montoro was forced by the Los Angeles County Superior Court to pay  the box office proceeds due to Girdler, Sheldon and Flaxman  immediately after a law