The film premiered at the Mann Village Theater on December 18, 1976, with a wide release by Warner Bros. the following day.

At the 49th Academy Awards, the film won Best Original Song for its love theme "Evergreen".

The film is a remake of the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, notably adapted in 1954 as a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason; and subsequently again in 2018 with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

John Norman Howard, a famous and self-destructive singer/songwriter rock star, arrives late for a concert.

A radio DJ, Bebe Jesus, hovers over the pool in a helicopter and invites John to his studio.

To save face, John asks Bobbie to tell them that he has found some new artists to work with and wishes them luck.

John leaves the house with a beer in hand and drives off in his flashy red sports car.

Back at the LA mansion, Esther hears John's voice, but she discovers it is just the tape of his earlier songwriting session, which a mover cannot figure out how to stop.

The two previous A Star is Born films portrayed the behind-the-scenes world of Hollywood filmmaking.

He was interested in taking the part, thinking it would revive his film career, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, insisted Elvis have top billing and asked for a substantial sum of money for the role, even though he had not had an acting role since 1969, and it was unknown what kind of box office draw he would be.

Its soundtrack album was an international success, reaching number 1 in many countries and selling nearly 15 million copies worldwide.

The film was choreographed by David Winters, who worked closely with Streisand to perfect the movie's dancing sequences.

Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, writing in his review: "There is, to begin with, no denying Barbra Streisand's enormous talent.

At the end of A Star Is Born the camera stays on her for one unbroken shot of seven or eight minutes, and she sings her heart out, and we concede that she's one of the great stars of the movies, one of the elemental presences...I thought Miss Streisand was distractingly miscast in the role, and yet I forgave her everything when she sang.

"[9] Gene Siskel also gave the film two and a half stars, calling it "a lumbering love story made palatable by Streisand's superb singing.

"[10] Variety was positive, calling Streisand's performance "her finest screen work to date, while Kris Kristofferson's portrayal of her failing benefactor realizes all the promise first shown five years ago in Cisco Pike.

"[11] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "a transistorized remake, louder than ever, but very small in terms of its being about anything whatsoever."

"[12] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "The treatment of Streisand is so ceaselessly close up and reverential from the start that there really seems nowhere to go but further up, and little of the mutuality of need that is essential to a love, or a love story...A half-hour in, I wrote 'a star is boring' in my notes, and was not later persuaded I'd been wrong.

His eyes have the proper faraway look that betokens a mind besotted either with booze or love, and he drifts toward his destiny with none of James Mason's fireworks but with a great deal of quiet charm.

"[15] In the Mad issue #193, dated September 1977, the movie was parodied in the "Rock of Aged Department" section as "A Star's A Bomb.

"[16] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of 43 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10; the site's "critics consensus" states: "A lack of memorable music, chemistry between its leads, and an overlong runtime prompts this modish iteration of A Star is Born to fizzle out quickly.

[18] In the 1937 and 1954 versions of A Star is Born, the characters played by Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland were each depicted on screen winning an Academy Award.

Bradley Cooper later starred in , directed, co-wrote, and co-produced a 2018 retelling, with Lady Gaga co-starring and composing new music.

In August 2021, while promoting her upcoming album, Streisand suggested that the 2018 film was unoriginal and the “wrong idea,” despite her version also being a remake and her clear and apparent support and praise of the project both during production and after its release.