Robert Altman was originally promised five "points" (a percentage) of the film's profits. After a disagreement between Altman and one of the 20th Century Fox executives, the offer of points was taken back before production began. When the film became a big hit, Altman's agent asked for the points back; the studio was considering it when Altman was quoted in the press saying how much he hated working for 20th Century Fox. He was never given the points back, and his compensation for directing the major hit stood at $75,000, although his son, Mike Altman did earn over $2 million in royalties, mostly during Robert Altman's lifetime alone (continuing to earn royalties through 2020, due to the use of the song as the theme for MASH (1972) during both it's original television run, and massive worldwide syndication) for writing the lyrics to the song, "Suicide is Painless," for the staged suicide scene of Captain Waldowski (portrayed by character actor John Schuck), whose character was known as the 'Painless Pole,' or simply 'Painless.' The "Suicide is Painless" song, previously unplanned, and done on a spur of the moment, supposedly taking Mike only five minutes to write the lyrics, which were set then to music by Johnny Mandel. Mandel later protested the ultimate use of the song, when he discovered that the song was to become the main theme song for the movie. Since Mandel also received royalties for years for the use of the song for MASH (1972), it was said that he recanted his complaint, and was later quite content with how the song was used.

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