<P> Kane's career in the publishing world is born of idealistic social service, but gradually evolves into a ruthless pursuit of power . Narrated principally through flashbacks, the story is told through the research of a newsreel reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the newspaper magnate's dying word: "Rosebud". </P> <P> After the Broadway successes of Welles's Mercury Theatre and the controversial 1938 radio broadcast "The War of the Worlds" on The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Welles was courted by Hollywood . He signed a contract with RKO Pictures in 1939 . Unusually for an untried director, he was given the freedom to develop his own story, to use his own cast and crew, and to have final cut privilege . Following two abortive attempts to get a project off the ground, he wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane, collaborating on the effort with Herman Mankiewicz . Principal photography took place in 1940 and the film received its American release in 1941 . </P> <P> While a critical success, Citizen Kane failed to recoup its costs at the box office . The film faded from view after its release but was subsequently returned to the public's attention when it was praised by such French critics as André Bazin and given an American revival in 1956 . The film was released on Blu - ray on September 13, 2011, for a special 70th anniversary edition . </P> <P> In a mansion in Xanadu, a vast palatial estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed . Holding a snow globe, he utters a word, "Rosebud", and dies; the globe slips from his hand and smashes on the floor . A newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher . Kane's death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreel's producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of "Rosebud". </P>

Citizen kane did not do well at the box office although it was praised by critics