'Fahrenheit 9/11' Ignites Box Office Passion

Box Office Mojo ^ | 06/27/2004 | Brandon Gray

[daviddennis]

HOLLYWOOD (Box Office Mojo) – Around three million people elected Fahrenheit 9/11 to be the No. 1 movie of America.

Incensing as many as it's entrancing, writer-director Michael Moore's Bush bash celebrated over the weekend with an estimated $21.8 million at 868 theaters, Lions Gate trumpeted on Sunday along with co-distributors IFC Films and the Fellowship Adventure Group -- the latter quickly formed by Miramax chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein to release the $6 million picture after buying it back from corporate parent Disney. Around $10 million was spent on prints and advertising, less than a third of the average Hollywood release.

With $21.958 million in the till since its record-breaking debut in New York City on Wednesday, Fahrenheit 9/11 is already the highest grossing documentary of all time -- excluding large format, concert and other non-"apples-to-apples" sub-genres – surpassing Moore's own Bowling for Columbine's $21.6 million lifetime gross.

Fahrenheit is also the first documentary to land in the weekend top five, let alone be No. 1. Its opening topped Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction's $9.3 million as the best ever for a Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner, and it was Tarantino's jury that handed Moore the prize this year.

Though Fahrenheit's $25,115 per theater average is extraordinary, it's not unprecedented. It ranks as the seventh highest all time for a wide release (adjusting for ticket price inflation knocks it down to no. 28) and the third best this year behind The Passion of the Christ's $27,554 and Shrek 2's $25,951. However, they were super-saturation releases playing at 3,043 and 4,163 theaters respectively -- the lower the theater count, the easier it is to have a high average as the release isn't diluted by less populous locations with lower ticket prices.

Fahrenheit's performance harkens back to the days when big movies wouldn't play in every nook and cranny of the country, but would bow at around 700 or 1,000 theaters to sell out crowds. Perhaps the greatest example of this, Return of the Jedi debuted to $23 million at 1,002 theaters in 1983, which would adjust to $45 million by today's ticket prices. In terms of raw dollars, Fahrenheit is actually the biggest opening ever for a movie playing at less than 1,000 theaters, topping Rocky III's $12.4 million at 939 venues.

Controversy is proving to be bigger business than ever. Prior to this year, it was seen as a way to raise awareness and help bolster a picture to modest returns (Dogma, Last Temptation of Christ). Chatter about its global warming themes didn't hurt The Day After Tomorrow either, which opened beyond expectations and is a solid blockbuster with $175 million to date. But it was Moore and Mel Gibson with The Passion of the Christ who have taken it to the next level: Controversy as saturation marketing campaign.

Though The Passion is perceived as the opposite of Fahrenheit in terms of whom it appeals to, both Moore and Gibson enlisted today's mass media to work for them, knowing that everyone from 24-hour news channels to talk radio would eat up the grand hot topic issues of their movies with the littlest of stoking. Gibson took the more strategic approach with his surgical strike appearances and screenings, but he had months to wage his campaign. Fahrenheit didn't have a release date, let alone a distributor, until a few weeks ago, so Moore and company used the shotgun approach, showing up everywhere and heralding every single development of the movie's progress.

[daviddennis]

I omitted information about other movies in the post; all FR-relevent information is here.

[daviddennis]

I figured people would be interested to see how it's been doing. One thing for sure: A huge profit for Michael Moore and friends.

You'd think the oldest trick in the documentary marketing book - saying your film is being "suppressed" by evil forces - wouldn't fool so many people, but if nothing else Michael Moore's chutzpah has paid off big-time.

Part of me genuinely admires his marketing prowness. I'm just surprised the public fell for it so hard.

That being said, I doubt that it's going to influence the election since the audience will be virtually all-left.

D

[NCPAC]

Amazing. Not good, mind you - but amazing.

[Ben Chad]

This reportedly was a queerfest in Dallas, Tx.

[hobbes1]

Two words.


No Legs.

[jbstrick]

Down 25% Sunday, from Saturdays numbers.

[Mr.Atos]

Do let's recall the words of Christopher Hitchens...

"If Michael Moore had had his way, Slobodan Milosevic would still be the big man in a starved and tyrannical Serbia. Bosnia and Kosovo would have been cleansed and annexed. If Michael Moore had been listened to, Afghanistan would still be under Taliban rule, and Kuwait would have remained part of Iraq. And Iraq itself would still be the personal property of a psychopathic crime family, bargaining covertly with the slave state of North Korea for WMD. You might hope that a retrospective awareness of this kind would induce a little modesty. To the contrary, it is employed to pump air into one of the great sagging blimps of our sorry, mediocre, celeb-rotten culture. "

Unfairenheit 9/11

[mattdono]

I don't understand. The movie "White Chicks" was released on the same day and has sold more tickets. Where's the stories? Here's the receipts...

rank	prev.	title	studio	weekend	total
1		Fahrenheit 9/11	Lions Gate	$21.80 million	$21.96 million
2		White Chicks	Sony	$19.60 million	$27.10 million

Source: ET Movies Online

So, while F' 9/11 (which is what Moore really thinks about that day in our country's history) won the weekend reciepts, White Chicks has grossed more.

[Jaded]

Well, this is just WRONG.

If you compare The Passion to F911 on an apples to apples basis The Passion was still a much bigger success.

Movie - F911
#Screens - 868
Wed - 83,922
Thur - 74,400
Fri - 8,200,000
Sat - 7,800,000
Sun - 5,800,000
Totals - 21,958,322

Adjust - F911 x 3.463
#Screens - 3005.884
Wed - 290,622
Thur - 257,647
Fri - 28,396,600
Sat - 27,011,400
Sun - 20,085,400
Totals - 76,041,669

Movie - Passion
#Screens - 3006
Wed - 26,556,573
Thur - 14,781,316
Fri - 22,909,948
Sat - 33,077,939
Sun - 27,860,195
Totals - 125,185,971


So F911 may be #1 as a DocuFraud but not much else. Oh, yeah there was that French thing, but who cares?

[mattdono]

Sorry...that table came out a little whacked out...Here's the table, just a bit more readable.

Rank	Prev.	Title	Studio	Weekend	Total
1		Fahrenheit 9/11	Lions Gate	$21.80 million	$21.96 million
2		White Chicks	Sony	$19.60 million	$27.10 million

[skeeter]

According to the article, Moore's film has netted under 6 million in profit on its first weekend after which, IMO, this movie will see a steep falloff in attendance.

6 million is alot of money, but it ain't huge.

[longtermmemmory]

same in south florida.


new movie choice was this and white chix. If anything it seems they set it up with zero competition for those who go and see "whatever" is in the theater.

[Maringa]

I think it is pointless to wonder and worry how much money the Moore film is going to make. It is going to make a lot a money...It can already claim a lot of firsts - highest grossing documentary ever. Has it opened in Europe, South America,etc, yet? If it hasn't, then I wouldn't be surprised if this thing earns over a $100 million. Marketing strategy,as mentioned, worked...

Instead of worrying about how much money is made, the ultimate come-back and commentary on the movie would be for W to win a convincing victory in November...

[Know your rights]

Around three million people elected Fahrenheit 9/11 to be the No. 1 movie of America.

Through good timing or dumb luck, no big movies opened that weekend. Fahrenheit 9/11's numbers are regularly dwarfed.

[Know your rights]

I wouldn't be surprised if this thing earns over a $100 million.

I would. Every Bush-hater has now seen it, and who else will want to?

[Jadge]

Some great points. F 9/11 opened against NOTHING. It was a really easy weekend to win first, by design I'm sure. When Spiderman 2 opens, it will be a distant third or fourth, is my prediction.

[skeeter]

I could care less how much Moore makes. I was simply saying IMO this film's luster will wear off very quickly - it won't, in the final analysis, be 'huge'.

I must admit to being pretty annoyed with the celebratory tone of the news media regarding its success. Up their's.

[JFC]

We were going to see DodgeBall but after seeing the starts at the Kerry Rally, we opted for Terminal. I know Speilberg and Hanks are libs but I do not see them at Rallys. Certain people I will not support... and they are the ones like Bennifer and others who oppose openly my President at the time of war.

[rabidralph]

Fellowship Adventure Group -- the latter quickly formed by Miramax chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein to release the $6 million picture after buying it back from corporate parent Disney.

Fellowship Adventure Group? LOL

[daviddennis]

I wonder why they spent $10m on prints and advertising, which seems very high for a movie of this type, where the publicity is all done by Mr Moore. I would have thought $0 on ads would have worked out just fine and wouldn't have affected the box office one bit.

Also, $6m seems like a pretty bloated budget for what he did. I would have thought you could have made this film for under $1m.

It looks like you folks are right about "no legs" due to the substantial sales drop-off for Sunday. Still, I'll bet most of you would have been pretty happy to make $6 million (less distribution fees, but they're probably not huge) for maybe a year of work that was probably a lot of fun for him. And the DVD's already been bought up by the DNC for distribution near November, and even at wholesale that's huge revenues for Moore.

Finally, note that I posted the article to disclose the facts, not because I agree with the writer's slant. There's no question that The Passion is a much greater hit for its maker and is far more profitable.

D