All involved did stints for scale ($185), with a bonus if the film made over $18 million. Another $1 million was allotted for promotion and publicity. Release The film opened in pre-release on February 17, 1978 in six cities (Nashville, Rochester, Columbus, Houston, Denver and Portland) before an official opening in Los Angeles on April 7. Reception Rabbit Test drew negative reviews from the majority of critics. Roger Ebert rated the film 1 star out of 4 and wrote that it "is not a funny movie. It really isn't. It's jammed from wall to wall with eccentric characters and throwaway one-liners and would-be funny signs ('The Christian Science Memorial Hospital'), but it's just not funny. And I know it's not, because I would have laughed if it had been." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and called it a "trivial and tasteless little movie ... It's nothing more than a series of tired ethnic insults and vulgar sex jokes." Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Miss Rivers has turned to directing without paying much heed to whether a whole movie constructed from one-liners is worth even the sum of its parts. In her case, it's not—and the one-liners weren't all that sparkling to begin with. When it winds up on television, which is where a movie this visually crude belonged in the first place, Rabbit Test may improve slightly: Constant commercial interruptions may help distract attention from the movie's continuity problems, which are severe. And the coarseness of its comedy may not seem so insufferable to an audience willing to sit still for Laverne and Shirley." Variety stated that "Rivers has taken a slim concept ... and come up with a generally slim feature. To be sure, it contains a few yocks, but the humor—from one liner to one liner—never emerges; it's 84 minutes of forced setups." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Ostensibly this film, sure to be among the year's worst, is a comedy, but it's really a mystery, the mystery being how a lady as witty and talented as Miss Rivers, who showed such flair with her script for the TV movie 'The Girl Most Likely To...', could come up with something so crass and unfunny." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called the film a "tiresome farce" full of jokes "which fall flat with