Editing Targets (section)

===Box office===
''Targets'' premiered in New York City on August 13, 1968.<ref name=afi/> It later screened at the [[Edinburgh Film Festival]] in September of that year.<ref name=afi>{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/19593|work=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]]|publisher=[[American Film Institute]]|title=Targets|access-date=May 20, 2023}}</ref> [[American International Pictures]] offered to release, but Bogdanovich wanted to try to see if the film could get a deal with a major studio. It was seen by [[Robert Evans]] of [[Paramount Pictures]], who bought it for $150,000, giving Corman an instant profit on the movie before it was released.{{sfn|Yule|1992|p=32}}

Although the film was written and production photography completed in late 1967, it was not released until after the [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]] and that of [[Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy|of Robert F. Kennedy]] in the summer of 1968, thus having topical relevance.{{sfn|Nollen|Nollen|2021|p=324}}

Bogdanovich, who appears in the film as a young writer-director, credits it with getting him noticed by the studios, which in turn led to his directing three very successful studio films (''[[The Last Picture Show]]'', ''[[What's Up, Doc? (1972 film)|What's Up, Doc?]]'', and ''[[Paper Moon (film)|Paper Moon]]'') in the early 1970s.

Around five years after release, in March 1973, New Zealand refused to issue a 'certificate of approval' for the film's trailer on the basis that it was "contrary to public order and decency".<ref>{{Cite letter|recipient=Cinema International Corporation|subject=Refusal of censor to approve film under the Cinematographic Films Act 1961|title=|first=B C|last=Tunnicliffe|date=14 March 1973|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>