Posted on 06/28/2004 7:37:26 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at boxofficemojo.com ...
But what will the numbers be next week after all the DNC, Democratic party faithful, Bush haters, Communists, Socialists, Marxists, ANSWER members, TeeRayZAH and John, have seen it?
Numbers fall dramatically and he will go back to the dustbin of irrelevancy.
That's like Carl Lewis taking a bunch of first graders out to a track and then beating them in a 100m race and proclaiming himself one of the greatest sprinters of all time.
This movie is being being bannered as the "high grossing documentary" - but it isn't a documentary - it is just a movie. Even MM is backing away from it being a documentary so it really should be compared to just a regular old movie and I don't think the opening would be that spectacular.
Also, you can bet that a few million in tickets were snapped up by DNC interests - not individuals.
And now that Iraq has been handed over, the whole movie is irrelevent. Bummer for MM.
We went to see Dodgeball which was quite funny!
I rented "Bubba Ho-Tep" instead. It is about a good-ol-boy Egyptian mummy with cowboy boots and a 10-gallon hat living in east Texas. He feeds off the souls of people in a nursing home. When two of the residents, a geriatric Elvis and JFK (the first one, played by Ossie Davis) learn of it, they proceed to battle evil (in an electric wheelchair and a walker).
In other words, it was much more truthful and more of a documentary than Michael Moores film was.
20/20 hindsight: conservatives should have organized to push some other movie past F911 for the top spot. (The Passion Of The Christ would have been an obvious choice.) Oh, well ....
My step-son Valley Forge College Sophomore said it was pure liberal bilge. I'm hoping more young people will come out more disgusted with the liberals than before they went in.
I'm proud to say it is impossible to see Fahrenshite 911 in Lincoln NE; none of our movie theaters are showing it.
Then it's NOT the highest-grossing documentary of all time, if other types of documentaries have to be excluded in order to make that point. It's like saying that the Houston Astros (currently in 5th place) of the NL Central are the top-ranked team in the division, if you exclude teams from the Midwest from that calculation.
My guess is they were careful WHERE to market this pig's movie. It probably appeared at all the liberal Democratic enclaves.
No need for copyright violation; I believe the DNC is already planning to distribute DVDs of it, feeling it would help their cause!
Hope that helps.
D
Oops! You're right; I didn't realize that Moore had encouraged this!
Sometimes you gotta laugh.
I guess he's made his pile, so he doesn't care anyway - and of course the in-theater experience is a lot better.
D
Bubba Ho Tep Bump!
I love Bruce Campbell. I have his signed biography. He signed it, "Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun."
The movie won't appeal to a lot of people...it has a lot of crotchety old man cussing.
But, if you rent it, watch it a second time and listen to Bruce and the director commentary while watching it. You'll laugh more then.
Sensei Ern
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