The movie's budget was $1 million. Four thousand people worked on the movie for a year. A lot of research was done to make all the 3,000 costumes and props look like they came from the Civil War period. The set decorator modeled the inside of the March home after Louisa May Alcott's Massachusetts house. The movie opened on November 16, 1933 at Radio City Music Hall. It broke attendance records there and earned over $100,000 during its first week of showings. Louise Closser Hale was going to play Aunt March, but she died on July 26, 1933. Edna May Oliver took the role.