The film's behind-the-scenes trouble continued after production, when its intended distributor reportedly recoiled from the material. Paramount Pictures was originally supposed to release Drum, but backed out because executives believed Dino De Laurentiis had delivered a film so sexually explicit and sensational that it would receive an X rating. That concern was especially consequential for a film built around slavery, sexual coercion, interracial relationships, sadistic violence, and a plotline involving the mutilation of a white slave owner's genitals—content that made the picture commercially radioactive in the censorship-conscious theatrical market of 1976.
De Laurentiis ultimately had to settle for what the source describes as a 'slightly laundered version,' then pitched the film to United Artists, which assumed distribution and released it in July 1976. The episode illustrates how distributors could reshape or abandon controversial exploitation-oriented productions even after substantial money had been spent. It also reinforced the film's uneasy identity: Drum was marketed as a major historical melodrama, yet its sensational material placed it closer to the disreputable exploitation market that mainstream distributors feared. Critics subsequently attacked the movie for turning the horrors of slavery into lurid titillation rather than historical insight.
