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On top of this, the two Towering Inferno leads were demanding top billing on the poster and credits, alongside Holden – but he didn’t stand a chance having not had a box office hit in a few years. In the end, the main duo had dual top billing with The Great Escape star’s name coming first but his co-lead’s being higher up.
This, therefore, gave the impression that both were the main star depending on if you were reading the poster left-to-right or top-to-bottom. The staggered or diagonal billing was the first of its kind, although it had been considered for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid before McQueen left the project and was replaced by the less well-known Robert Redford. Meanwhile, the King of Cool’s name came first in The Towering Inferno trailer, but Newman’s appeared first in the end credits even though the names were arranged diagonally again.
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