Citizen Kane is praised for Gregg Toland's cinematography, Robert Wise's editing, Bernard Herrmann's score and its narrative structure, all of which have been considered innovative and precedent-setting.

Cecilia Ager, reviewing it in PM Magazine, wrote: “Seeing it, it’s as if you never really saw a movie before.”[9] Although it was a critical success, Citizen Kane failed to recoup its costs at the box office.

Kane took control of the New York Inquirer newspaper and embarked on a career of yellow journalism, publishing scandalous articles that attacked Thatcher's (and his own) business interests.

In 1937, he declined offers from David O. Selznick, who asked him to head his film company's story department, and William Wyler, who wanted him for a supporting role in Wuthering Heights.

The most controversial aspect of the contract was granting Welles complete artistic control of the two films so long as RKO approved both projects' stories[22]: 169  and the budget did not exceed $500,000.

It was my idea to show that six or more people could have as many widely divergent opinions concerning the nature of a single personality...There have been many motion pictures and novels rigorously obeying the formula of the "success story".

Cotten had recently become a Broadway star in the hit play The Philadelphia Story with Katharine Hepburn[22]: 187  and Sloane was well known for his role on the radio show The Goldbergs.

[40]: 44 Welles had met stage actress Ruth Warrick while visiting New York on a break from Hollywood and remembered her as a good fit for Emily Norton Kane,[22]: 188  later saying that she looked the part.

He then taught himself filmmaking by matching its visual vocabulary to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which he ordered from the Museum of Modern Art,[22]: 173  and films by Frank Capra, René Clair, Fritz Lang, King Vidor[44]: 1172 : 1171  and Jean Renoir.

[47]: 5:33–6:06  During the first few weeks of June, Welles had lengthy discussions about the film with Toland and art director Perry Ferguson in the morning, and in the afternoon and evening he worked with actors and revised the script.

To strategically save money and appease the RKO executives who opposed him, Welles rehearsed scenes extensively before actually shooting and filmed very few takes of each shot set-up.

Welles had difficulty seeing clearly while wearing them, which caused him to badly cut his wrist when shooting the scene in which Kane breaks up the furniture in Susan's bedroom.

While shooting the scene in which Kane shouts at Gettys on the stairs of Susan Alexander's apartment building, Welles fell ten feet; an X-ray revealed two bone chips in his ankle.

[h][23]: 61  For the final scene, a stage at the Selznick studio was equipped with a working furnace, and multiple takes were required to show the sled being put into the fire and the word "Rosebud" consumed.

[75]: 46 "My sculptural techniques for the characters' aging were handled by adding pieces of white modeling clay, which matched the plaster, onto the surface of each bust," Seiderman told Norman Gambill.

[21]: 94  Toland said that he disliked the results of the optical printer,[21]: 92  but acknowledged that "RKO special effects expert Vernon Walker, ASC, and his staff handled their part of the production—a by no means inconsiderable assignment—with ability and fine understanding.

In the opening sequence, for example, the tour of Kane's estate Xanadu, Herrmann introduces a recurring leitmotif played by low woodwinds, including a quartet of alto flutes.

[84] For Susan Alexander Kane's operatic sequence, Welles suggested that Herrmann compose a witty parody of a Mary Garden vehicle, an aria from Salammbô.

"[23]: 51  The film often uses long dissolves to signify the passage of time and its psychological effect of the characters, such as the scene in which the abandoned sled is covered with snow after the young Kane is sent away with Thatcher.

Some events and details were invented,[85]: 444  and Houseman wrote that he and Mankiewicz also "grafted anecdotes from other giants of journalism, including Pulitzer, Northcliffe and Mank's first boss, Herbert Bayard Swope".

[23]: 53  Biographer Richard Meryman wrote that the symbol of Mankiewicz's own damaged childhood was a treasured bicycle, stolen while he visited the public library and not replaced by his family as punishment.

[21]: 111 When Schaefer did not submit to Parsons she called other studio heads and made more threats on behalf of Hearst to expose the private lives of people throughout the entire film industry.

[22]: 209  Soon afterwards, Schaefer was approached by Nicholas Schenck, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's parent company, with an offer on the behalf of Louis B. Mayer and other Hollywood executives to RKO Pictures of $805,000 to destroy all prints of the film and burn the negative.

[22]: 216 The day following the premiere of Citizen Kane, The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that "it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood... Count on Mr. Welles: he doesn't do things by halves. ...

[126] Tatler's James Agate called it "the well-intentioned, muddled, amateurish thing one expects from high-brows";[127] he admitted that it was "a quite good film" but insisted that it "tries to run the psychological essay in harness with your detective thriller, and doesn't quite succeed.

[22]: 216  According to the Motion Picture Herald, an industry trade paper run by conservative catholic publisher Martin Quigley, many theater owners criticized the low box office appeal, even though some had positive views of the movie's artistic value.

Variety reported that block voting by screen extras deprived Citizen Kane of Best Picture and Best Actor, and similar prejudices were likely to have been responsible for the film receiving no technical awards.

Falacci's account is impossible to verify, but it would have been fully in keeping with industry standard practice for many decades, which was to destroy prints and negatives of countless older films deemed non-commercially viable, to extract the silver.

This version had an improved transfer and additional special features, including the documentary The Legacy of Citizen Kane and Welles's early short "The Hearts of Age".

Criticism increased when filmmaker Henry Jaglom stated that shortly before his death Welles had implored him "don't let Ted Turner deface my movie with his crayons.