After a screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1976, Astral Bellevue Pathé Limited sold distribution rights to "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane", allowing it to make $750,000 worldwide by June. The film was shown in Paris with a French dub on 26 January and in Toronto on 28 January 1977. According to "Variety", Beachfront Properties secured a temporary restraining order which gave it ownership of the film per a contract from September 1976. This order forbade any new sales but did not change the American International Pictures release in April 1977. The film had trial screenings in Albuquerque and Peoria, Illinois on 18 March 1977. It opened in Los Angeles on 11 May and in New York City on 10 August 1977, with a PG rating.