The Towering Inferno was released on 16 December 1974.
After the success of The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Warner Bros. purchased the rights to Richard Martin Stern's novel The Tower (about a fire in a new skyscraper) before its 1973 publication. A short time later it also bought the rights to The Glass Inferno by Frank M. Robinson and Thomas N. Scortia, which had "the same sort of characters, the same locale, the same story, the same conclusion," according to producer Irwin Allen.
Stirling Silliphant (who had written The Poseidon Adventure) wrote the screenplay, and William Holden, Steve McQueen, and Paul Newman were announced as co-stars. All three wanted top billing, with Holden quickly denied (which he accepted), but McQueen and Newman insisted on their name appearing first in the credits. It was ultimately decided that their names would be staggered (McQueen slight lower on the left, Newman slightly higher to the right) so that each could claim "first."
Despite its lengthy run-time (2 hours and 45 minutes), the film was a huge box office success (one of the highest-grossing films in both 1974 and 1975), and received 8 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Fred Astaire), Best Original Dramatic Score (John Williams), and Best Art Direction.
It received Oscars for Best Cinematography (Joseph Biroc and Fred Koenekamp), Best Film Editing (Carl and Harold Kress - father and son), and Best Song ("We May Never Love Like This Again" by Joel Hirschhorn and Al Kasha and performed by Maureen McGovern, who had also performed Hirschhorn and Kasha's Oscar-winning "The Morning After" in The Poseidon Adventure).
