"Dracula" opened in Havana, Cuba on Mach 11, 1931 and in New York on April 24, 1931 and in Los Angeles on May 8, 1931. The film was distributed by the Universal Pictures Corp. On its screening in Los Angeles at the California Theatre, the theatre reported a box-office take of $5,600 for the film, which was less than the previous week's film, Paramount's "Gente Alegre" which grossed $6,600. By October 1930, "The Hollywood Reporter" described that foreign-language versions of films had been financial flops in every country, which led to studios dubbing pictures films to reach non-English speaking markets. Melford's "Dracula" was among the last of these multi-lingual types of productions. The film was described by Rhodes as "largely forgotten" with only a few horror film historians mentioning it in the 1960s and 1970. New interest towards the film began after a screening of the film in New York sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art in August 1977. The print screened was incomplete but sparked interest due to it being a largely unseen Universal horror film.