Franklin D. Roosevelt screened the film at the Second Quebec Conference in 1944. Among those watching were Winston Churchill who was decidedly unimpressed and left early to go to bed. For his part, Roosevelt, upon seeing the part with Wilson suffering a stroke while advocating for the League of Nations, remarked, "by God, that's not going to happen to me!"
The film, a pet project and labor of love for producer Darryl F. Zanuck, was a notorious box-office flop in its day, despite good reviews and several Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor, and despite the fact that when it played the Roxy in New York, it grossed more than any one movie had in a single theatre up to then. Zanuck was so heartbroken over the movie's failure that he forbade anyone who came into his presence to ever mention the film again.
Three years later when Darryl F. Zanuck stood on the Oscar podium picking up his Best Film Academy Award for Tabu der Gerechten (1947), he said "I should have won this for Wilson (1944)".
Darryl F. Zanuck was so proud of the film that he ordered that the world premiere be held in Wahoo, Nebraska, his home town - presumably so that Zanuck could show off his pet project to the local citizens. The plan backfired; nobody in Wahoo was really interested in Woodrow Wilson, and attendance at the film's showings was extremely poor.
Character actor Dwight Frye was originally going to play Secretary of State Newton D. Baker, however he passed away following a heart attack three days before filming was supposed to begin. Afterwards, the character was written out of the script.