Overall things could have been worse for the film!!!!
It did have a few years glory before Ballard discovered the actual condition of the ship.
Suppose the film's release had coincided with the discovery of the ship. It might have been the first movie to go to video following its release. And I'm not sure that expression even existed at this time. The format would have been Beta, not VHS, wouldn't it? Or even possibly RCA Selectavision. For those unfamiliar with this format it was a dvd as big as a record album. Never caught on somehow.
Uh, Oh!! I forgot there are probably some of you who don't know of record albums, either!!!