According to a 16 Oct 1978 HR production chart, principal photography began 26 Jun 1978. Production notes in AMPAS library files state that the picture was filmed entirely in New York City, including the areas of Coney Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The schedule was comprised primarily of outdoor night shoots. The opening sequence depicting the assembly of one hundred gangs was filmed in upper Manhattan’s Riverside Drive Park and involved over 1,000 background extras, consisting mostly of local residents. The New York City Transit Authority provided essential cooperation for the numerous subway locations.
       The Warriors was entangled in controversy soon after its nationwide release on 9 Feb 1979, as described in numerous articles, including the 22 Feb 1979 DV, the 23 Feb 1979 NYT, and the 26 Feb 1979 LAT. The picture opened at 670 theaters, grossing nearly $3.5 million in its first three days and approximately $9.3 million after two weeks. The box-office performance was impressive for a film that cost approximately $4 million to make and $2 million to market, but the success was overshadowed by violence at theaters showing the film. On 12 Feb 1979, a teenager was shot and killed at a drive-in theater in Palm Springs, CA, and another was fatally stabbed at the Esplanade Theater in Oxnard, CA. At Pasadena, CA’s State Theater, the manager was assaulted on 14 Feb 1979 and a brawl occurred in the lobby, prompting the cancellation of the final two screenings that evening. The following night in Boston, MA, a young man who had just seen the movie at the Saxon Theater stabbed a sixteen-year-old to death. In New York City, exhibitors reported altercations at several cinemas, and transit police arrested young hooligans for jumping subway turnstiles to avoid ride fares, “a trick they said they saw in the film,” according to the 23 Feb 1979 NYT. However, New York City Police did not detect any escalation of gang activity. While many exhibitors reported disorderly conduct at their venues during or after screenings, they did not directly blame the film for inciting violence, but rather explained that the picture tended to attract “unruly crowds.”
       In the wake of these incidents and sporadic acts of vandalism associated with the film, distributor Paramount Pictures Corp. pulled advertising for The Warriors on 16 Feb 1979 and offered exhibitors the option of terminating their booking commitment without penalty. The 22 Feb 1979 DV noted that few exhibitors elected to drop the picture because of the agreeable licensing contract and robust box-office. The studio also offered to pay for additional security at theaters showing the film. After six days, Paramount reinstated a revised print advertising campaign that simply listed the film title and showtimes, minus any artwork or images. Radio and television promotion was completely cancelled. The 26 Feb 1979 DV mentioned that the film’s trailer, whose content was “rougher” than the radio and television ads, continued to play. In a 21 Feb 1979 Var editorial, a “prominent industry observer” was quoted as saying that withdrawing the picture completely from nationwide distribution would be “unfortunate” and “set a lousy example.” The editorial concluded by taking into consideration the advice of another source, who believed the situation should be managed on a case-by-case basis at the local level.
       The Warriors was the first of several youth gang pictures released in 1979. The unexpected mayhem prompted the other films, The Wanderers, Boulevard Nights, and Walk Proud (see entries), to distance themselves from the term “gang picture,” as discussed in the 21 Feb 1979 Var article.
       Meanwhile, the notoriety surrounding The Warriors appeared to be a boost for its box-office, according to the 27 Mar 1979 DV. On 11 Apr 1979, DV noted that the picture had reached the $20 million mark in its ninth week of release.
       As reported in the 14 Mar 1979 Var, the film remained a point of contention in Massachusetts where the state legislature held a special hearing to discuss whether to introduce any restrictions on the exhibition. According to the 9 Apr 1979 Box, no actions were taken, but government officials in Chelmsford and Billerica pressured local exhibitors to withdraw the picture on 21 Mar 1979, following numerous complaints about rowdy youth after screenings. State and town officials both acknowledged that banning the film would have infringed on free speech rights. Four years later, the 3 Mar 1983 DV announced that complaints from local organizations and the public led to the cancellation of the 25 Feb 1983 television broadcast of The Warriors on WCVB, the Boston affiliate for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
       The parents of Martin Yakubowicz, the sixteen-year-old who was killed following a Saxon Theater screening, filed a wrongful death suit in 1981 against Paramount Pictures and the theater owner, charging that the studio and the exhibitor were aware “that the film was inciting violence around the country,” as stated in the 19 Apr 1989 HR. After the case was dismissed in Superior Court, the family appealed to the state Supreme Court, but the lower court’s decision was upheld in a unanimous decision on 18 Apr 1989. Justice Francis O’Connor wrote: “Although the film is rife with violent scenes, it does not at any point exhort, urge, entreat, solicit or overtly advocate or encourage unlawful or violent activity on the part of viewers.”
       The Warriors also faced controversy overseas. After the censorship board in France assigned the film an “X” rating for violence, foreign distributor Cinema International Corporation (CIC) cut ten minutes of footage and was granted an “Adults Only” rating on appeal, as reported in Var articles from 18 Jun 1980 and 1 Oct 1980. The 11 Jul 1979 Var explained that releasing the picture with an “X” would be “financially detrimental,” restricting it to the pornography theater circuit, where audiences were more interested in sex than violence. Furthermore, the picture would be subject to special taxation and advertising restrictions. In response, director Walter Hill wrote a 3 Sep 1980 letter to French newspaper L’Express in which he declined “authorship” of the edited film and denounced censorship.
       On 21 Oct 2005, WSJ reported that director Tony Scott, who died in 2012, was planning a remake set in Los Angeles, CA, featuring a climactic fight scene at the Long Beach Bridge. As of May 2016, the status of the project could not be confirmed.