Global Warming Media Disaster: DiCaprio’s ‘11th Hour’ Bombs at Box Office

By Noel Sheppard | September 5, 2007 - 13:21 ET

More evidence that Al Gore's Live Earth flop was indeed the beginning of the end to the public's fascination with global warming: Leonardo DiCaprio's recently released film on the subject has bombed with moviegoers.

As reported by Fox News's Roger Friedman Wednesday (emphasis added throughout):

His environmental documentary, "The 11th Hour," has been a total bust at the box office. After 18 days in release, the film has grossed only $417,913 from ticket sales.

As Friedman pointed out, these are horrible numbers:

The 90-minute snore-fest is playing on 111 screens this week, but that number is likely to be reduced this Friday. The film will be sent to DVD heaven after that.
By comparison, Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim's similar but far more engaging "An Inconvenient Truth" had already made $3.5 million by its 18th day of release.

With the disaster that was Live Earth, and the BBC's announcement that it's canceling a planned day-long special on climate change, it certainly appears the public has tired of being told by disingenuous, wealthy, hypocritical movie stars that the world is going to come to an end if they don't stop driving automobiles and heating their homes during winter.

Even more troublesome to a media fixated on shoving this supposed problem down the throats of citizens is how much attention was given to this film by press outlets throughout the country including the New York Times and CBS.

Is this an indication that the press have way overplayed this issue, and that the public have grown numb to media claims of imminent doom?

Or, have back-to-back errant predictions of above average hurricane seasons led the public to a logical conclusion press members seem incapable of coming to: meteorologists can't predict weather a week from today; why should anybody believe they can forecast events decades and centuries into the future?

Regardless of the answer, it seems that two years after Katrina hit New Orleans, without a follow-up occurrence of that natural disaster, America has lost its appetite for the global warming alarmism being served by the press.

Now that's an inconvenient truth.

*****Update: Brian Maloney tells us that "The 11th Hour" was written by Al Franken's Air America replacement.

—Noel Sheppard is an economist, business owner, and Associate Editor of NewsBusters.

Who said this is a “well known” documentary? How often had you heard of it before you saw this article? Your “guarantee” is crap, the distributor put it in four theaters opening weekend the results are predictable with that opening, if they are disappointed then they should have opened it wider, the fact that they didn’t shows they’re getting what they expected. Most 4 theater openings don’t turn into March of the Penguins, 99.9% of them make a couple hundred grand and go away. This movie is performing to what any sane person would expect, if performing to expectations is disappointing to anyone involved in the movie then that person is an idiot.

The real goal for scare tactic documentaries is to feel superior. It provides a poster for all the principles to put in their office that shows they care. If the goal was to alert the populace then why open in only 4 theaters? To alert the populace you need to hit at least 1000 theaters.

I don’t give a crap about the artistic intent, I’m looking at the MARKET intent. You can tell a lot about what they wanted to do with a movie by it’s theatrical pattern. Opening in 4 theaters any time other than December is a clear market intent of not making a whole bunch of money (you get some tiny releases like that in December when movies are gunning for Oscars then a bigger release in January for the money). There’s simply no indication they thought this was going to be a cash cow of a movie, and if they didn’t think it was going to be a cash cow it’s hard to imagine they thought it was going to alert the populace, it’s hard for movies that don’t make any money to move the masses.

No it’s not all about building buzz, sometimes it’s about realizing this movie won’t make serious money and getting what you can out of it. I doubt highly this movie cost more than a quarter million to make. It’s not just opinion it’s working with the facts available, and the FACTS say it’s highly unlikely anybody thought this movie was going to make big money, the FACTS point to a deliberate small release with very little attempt to build momentum towards the big big money. You’re just guess they targeted something bigger but the facts say that’s just a guess. Heck the movie hasn’t even been released internationally yet, if they were gunning for the big big money it would be out in at least part of the rest of the world by now.

Sigh, it IS about building buzz for as cheap as possible. These indie flicks are too unpredictable. They release it first in huge cities, especially the ones that advance a political agenda (usually liberal) (5-10 cities), if it does well they increase its theatres to mid-major cities (100 +- 50 cities). It does well there they advance it to North America (500-3k theaters) and then usually globally. Leo alone probably cost over a $1 million for his voice. He usually commands upwards of $10 million for a movie. You can think whatever you want but you are incorrect. Look here at what An inconvenient truth did. 4 theatres, then 77, then 122, then 404, then 514, then 587. It's PTA was way higher than this movie with almost identical buzz. It made 25 million domestic. It's PTA was more in a single day on the weekend than 11th hour did over the entire weekend. But you keep on believing what you want to believe. You don't think Warner purchased the rights (probably for millions as most of these types are) because they thought they would lose money do you? You can continue to bury your head in the sand if you want, the rest of us will realize that the big wigs are indeed disappointed.

It’s all ifs though. Most movies that open in 4 theaters don’t build big, they noodle around in a small number of theaters for a few make hardly any money and go away. I doubt Leo cost them a penny, he probably listed his price as over a million and donated his time, remember he’s a true believer.

Inconvenient Truth was another exception movie, not the rule. Look at the other movies in Boxofficemojo’s list around 173 this year, those are the rules for a 4 theater opening. Those are how it usually goes. Those are the FACTS. I doubt high Warner Independent spent millions on the distribution rights, that’s the small release arm of Warner and they know these movies don’t make that much money, most of the movies they’ve distributed topped out around $2 million in revenue, if they’re regularly spending multiple millions getting the rights to these movies they’re killing Warner’s bottom line.

I’m not saying they aren’t disappointed, there’s always going to be somebody that hopes for more money. I’m saying it’s not bombing, that parring for the kind of movie and release schedule is not a bomb. And that’s what it’s doing, par. It’s a fairly average performance for a documentary opening in 4 theaters. Par is NEVER a bomb.

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