Burt Lancaster, who headlined the movie above the title with Dean Martin, made a great deal of money from the film, which was a huge hit. His contract gave him a 10% profit participation once the movie hit $50 million; it grossed $45.3 million in North America alone. Despite the financial windfall, Lancaster said that the movie was "the worst piece of junk ever made." He said he only made this film in return for the studio agreeing to finance several non-commercial films, in which he was interested. Lancaster added it was a joke that this film was nominated for any awards at all.
Patty Poulsen (Joan), one of the stewardesses aboard the "Golden Argosy" in her only film role, was a stewardess for American Airlines. She was the winner of a stewardess beauty contest in which one of the prizes was a role in this film. She was also used heavily in American Airlines' advertising of its new uniforms during the mid to late 1960s, photos that have, more recently, appeared in several different coffee table books celebrating the history of the airline hostess.
The Boeing 707 (a 707-349C, serial #19351-the 503rd 707 off the production line-originally registered N324F), was leased to Universal Pictures from Flying Tiger Airlines (now merged with FedEx) for the filming of the exterior shots. After filming was completed, the aircraft returned to Flying Tiger and was later sold, going through various owners before meeting a tragic end: it crashed while on landing approach on 21 March 1989, in São Paulo, Brazil.