[citation needed] In February 1969, before the release of the film, both Hoffman and Farrow made the cover of Time, with the headline: "The Young Actors: Stars and Anti-Stars".

This marked and celebrated new actors like Hoffman and Farrow (both hot off their successes in The Graduate and Rosemary's Baby, respectively) as significant to their generation.

[6][7] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "John and Mary is supposed to be a contemporary movie, I guess, and yet it's curiously out of touch.

[10] According to Fox records, the film required $6,300,000 in rentals to break even, and by December 11, 1970, it had made $8,150,000, resulting in a profit to the studio.

[11] Won: Nominated: The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones, and the soundtrack, featuring vocalists Evie Sands, The Strange Things, Jeff Bridges, The Morgan Ames Singers and four classical pieces performed by a brass ensemble, was released on the A&M label in 1970.