Filming for the Ben-Hur 1959 film commenced on the 18th of May 1958 and wrapped on the 7th of January 1959. The production schedule required shooting sessions lasting 12 to 14 hours daily for six days each week.
Gore Vidal rewrote nearly all dialogue while Karl Tunberg received official screenwriter credit despite contributing only a fraction of the final text. Christopher Fry also spent six days a week rewriting lines and entire scenes to achieve a formal tone without sounding stilted or medieval.
The budget for the Ben-Hur 1959 film reached $15.175 million making it the costliest film ever produced up to that time. A separate $1 million construction cost applied specifically to the chariot arena set which took over a year to build from a rock quarry.
Ben-Hur won an unprecedented eleven Academy Awards during the 32nd ceremony including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role. Sam Zimbalist received Best Picture posthumously after dying on the 4th of November 1958 while William Wyler took home Best Director.
The film's first telecast occurred on Sunday the 14th of February 1971 when CBS broadcast it over five hours including commercials during a single evening. 85.82 million people watched creating a 37.1 average rating which made it one of the highest-rated movies ever screened on television at that time.