This disaster movie was a landmark in movie theaters at the time because it transported viewers through sensorround sound to feel what it was like to be in a place where this natural phenomenon occurred.
Inspired by the earthquake that occurred in San Fernando, in the Los Angeles area during the early morning hours of February 9, 1971, George Fox and Mario Puzo, the latter, a renowned writer and screenwriter, Oscar winner in 1972 for the adaptation of his own work "The Godfather", managed to create a story that captures the lives of several characters and their reactions to a sudden natural disaster.
It starred Charlton Heston as Stewart Graff, Ava Gardner as Remy Royce-Graff, George Kennedy as Lou Slade, Lorne Greene as Sam Royce, Geneviève Bujold as Denise Marshall, Richard Roundtree as Miles Quade, Marjoe Gortner as Jody Joad, Barry Sullivan as Dr. Willis Stockle, Lloyd Nolan as Dr. James Vance and Victoria Principal as Rosa Amici, as well as a large group of extras.
The initial budget for this production was in the order of $7 million, a large sum for the time, and box office receipts exceeded $81 million.
The direction was in charge of Mark Robson, a veteran in these matters who was nominated for an Oscar in 1958 and 1959 for the films Peyton Place and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, and the music was in charge of John Williams who had won the Oscar in 1971 for the film Fiddler on the Roof).
The success of the film was sustained in large part to the novelty of surround sound baptized as sensurround where high-powered baffles were placed around the theater to amplify the sound and transmit a sensory experience of surround sound that consisted of adding to the film an extra soundtrack inaudible to the human ear, but felt in the form of vibrations in the cinema, so that one had the feeling of being inside the same earthquake in the key scenes.
The 1970s was dominated by disaster genre films and several of these dominated the decade, it was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, (Alexander Golitzen, E. Preston Ames, Frank R. McKelvy), Best Sound and Best Visual Effects (there were no other nominees in this category). The film was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture Dramatic and Best Original Score (by John Williams and won Best Sound, receiving a Special Recognition Oscar for visual effects.
The special effects supervisor (Benjamin Resella) was the same as that of famous films of the time such as The Towering Inferno, King Kong, Coma or Silver Streak.
The film was released on November 15, 1974 and was the fourth highest grossing film of the year and by 1976 was the 20th most successful film in history.