The Little Shop of Horrors AIP distributed the film as the B movie for their release of Mario Bava's "Black Sunday". Despite being barely mentioned in advertising (it was only occasionally referred to as an "Added Attraction" to Bava's film), "Black Sunday"'s critical and commercial success resulted in positive word of mouth responses to "The Little Shop of Horrors". The film was re-released again the following year in a double feature with "Last Woman on Earth". Because Corman did not believe that "The Little Shop of Horrors" had much financial prospect after its initial theatrical run, he did not bother to copyright it, resulting in
The Little Shop of Horrors has been denied by Mel Welles. According to Joseph, Corman shot the film quickly in order to beat changing industry rules that would have prevented producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. On January 1, 1960, new rules were to go into effect requiring producers to pay all actors residuals for all future releases of their work. This meant that Corman's B-movie business model would be permanently changed and he would not be able to produce low-budget movies in the same way. Before these rules went into effect, Corman decided to shoot one last film and scheduled it