Released in the United States by Warner Bros. in March 1973 as "Five Fingers of Death", the film capitalized on the success of Warner's TV series "Kung Fu" and was responsible for beginning the North American kung fu film craze of the 1970s with over 30 similar films being released in the U.S. in 1973 alone. Warner followed it with the first U.S.-Chinese Kung Fu co-production "Enter the Dragon" released later that same year which was the most successful of the chopsocky films of 1973.