quality:correction
Initial response

Casablanca received "consistently good reviews". Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "The Warners... have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." He applauded the combination of "sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue." Crowther noted its "devious convolutions of the plot" and praised the screenplay quality as "of the best" and the cast's performances as "all of the first order".

The trade paper Variety commended the film's "combination of fine performances, engrossing story and neat direction" and the "variety of moods, action, suspense, comedy and drama that makes Casablanca an A-1 entry at the b.o. " The review observed that the "ilm is splendid anti-Axis propaganda, particularly inasmuch as the propaganda is strictly a by-product of the principal action and contributes to it instead of getting in the way". Variety also applauded the performances of Bergman and Henreid and noted, "Bogart, as might be expected, is more at ease as the bitter and cynical operator of a joint than as a lover, but handles both assignments with superb finesse."

Some reviews were less enthusiastic. The New Yorker rated Casablanca only "pretty tolerable" and said it was "not quite up to Across the Pacific, Bogart's last spyfest".

At the 1,500-seat Hollywood Theater, the film grossed $255,000 over ten weeks (equivalent to $ 3.8 million in 2023). In its initial American release, Casablanca was a substantial, but not spectacular, box-office success, earning $3.7 million (equivalent to $ 55 million in 2023). A 50th-anniversary release grossed $1.5 million in 1992. According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $3,398,000 domestically and $3,461,000 in foreign markets.