I wonder why it was not very popular upon its first release?
The reason It’s A Wonderful Life was not a hit upon original release in 1946 is interesting.
WWII had just ended. Director Frank Capra had formed a production company with fellow director William Wyler who made “The Best Years of Our Lives” the same year Wonderful LIfe came out... which did deal with the issue of returning veterans from the war.
People were not nostalgic that year for Americana or yesteryear, they were in transition. There was also some problem with the release schedule and dates, I can’t remember... but Capra had separated himself from the Studio System and any long term contracts with the Big Studios at that point and I believe distribution for his film and Wyler’s film that year were some problem.
Another partner in Capra’s independent “Liberty Films” with Wyler was director George Stevens.
Stevens was busy during the war taking color film. He went to the concentration camps.
When Stevens came home after seeing the death and destruction of the Nazis in Europe, he declared he would never make another comedy again.
All this added up to a lousy box office, in that first post war year of 1946.
By the way, the car may have been licensed to Fox studios, but the Bedford Falls exteriors were shot at the old RKO ranch in Encino, California. I heard this from Capra’s son himself, Tom Capra... I asked.
Capra had slaved for many years on the story for IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, hiring and firing many writers along the way. He considered it his best film and was crushed at its lackluster box office. He lived to see the resurgence of his film on tv, but abhorred the colorization process that Ted Turner utilized on public domain films in the 80’s.
Oh and the reason IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE fell into public domain was because it was produced and owned by Liberty Films, Capra’s independent company, and copyright was not renewed after 28 years. RKO pulled a fast one by claiming music copyright on the soundtrack. Tricky deal. I don’t know if I believe it is actually kosher, but the studios have pulled a lot of “fast ones’ with the copyright office in the past. For example. Mickey Mouse should have fallen into public domain quite a long time ago. Disney pulled a lot of strings to keep the Mouse under copyright.
In any case, Capra was thrilled, in later life, to see his masterpiece resurrected, though personally I believe Mr. Smith Goes To Washington is even better.