 Jewel Productions released the film on July 20, 1918. Advertising touted it as "the picture that will never have a competitor"; the film itself called McCay "the originator and inventor of Animated Cartoons" and drew attention to the fact that it took 25,000 drawings to complete. The Sinking of the Lusitania did not greatly return on McCay's investment — after a few years' run in theaters, it netted $ 80,000.
