'Fahrenheit 9 / 11' Sets Documentary Record

[No Mandate Here.]

<http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Box-Office.html>

Perhaps a touch long, but in its entirety!

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 27, 2004

Filed at 6:46 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Moore's ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' took in a whopping $21.8 million in its first three days, becoming the first documentary ever to debut as Hollywood's top weekend film.

If Sunday's estimates hold when final numbers are released Monday, ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' would set a record in a single weekend as the top-grossing documentary ever outside of concert films and movies made for huge-screen IMAX theaters.

Adding the film's haul at two New York City theaters where it opened Wednesday, two days earlier than the rest of the country, boosted ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' to $21.96 million.

``Bowling for Columbine,'' Moore's 2002 Academy Award-winning documentary, previously held the documentary record with $21.6 million.

``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' Moore's assault on President Bush's actions after the 2001 terrorist attacks, won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film Festival and has attracted attention from both sides in the presidential campaign.

The movie has been embraced by left-wing groups, which mobilized members to see it during the opening weekend. Conservative groups sought to discourage theaters from showing it and asked the Federal Election Commission to examine its ads for potential violations of campaign-finance law regulating when commercials may feature a presidential candidate.

``I want to thank all the right-wing organizations out there who tried to stop the film, either from their harassment campaign that didn't work on the theater owners, or going to the FEC to get our ads removed from television, to all the things that have been said on television,'' Moore said. ``It's only encouraged more people to go and see it.''

The Wayans brothers' comedy ``White Chicks,'' about two black FBI agents who go undercover as white debutantes, opened in second place with $19.6 million for the weekend. That pushed the total for ``White Chicks'' to $27.1 million since opening Wednesday.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, ``Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,'' slipped to third place, taking in $18.5 million and pushing its 10-day total to $67.2 million. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' ``The Terminal'' fell from second to fourth place with $13.9 million, raising its 10-day gross to $41.8 million.

Premiering in fifth place with $13 million was the tearjerker romance ``The Notebook,'' featuring Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner and Gena Rowlands.

Despite good reviews, the family film ``Two Brothers,'' about tiger siblings separated in youth and reunited as opponents in the ring as grown cats, opened weakly at No. 9 with $6.2 million.

``Fahrenheit 9/11'' opened in 868 theaters, a wide release for a documentary but narrow compared to big Hollywood flicks. The film averaged $25,115 a theater, compared to $7,190 in 2,726 cinemas for ``White Chicks.''

Distributors Lions Gate and IFC Films plan to put ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' into a couple of hundred more theaters this Wednesday, when competition heats up with the release of ``Spider-Man 2,'' summer's most-anticipated movie.

Lions Gate and IFC came on board after Disney refused to let subsidiary Miramax release ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' because of its political content. Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought back the film and went looking for independent distributors.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. ``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' $21.8 million.

2. ``White Chicks,'' $19.6 million.

3. ``Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,'' $18.5 million.

4. ``The Terminal,'' $13.9 million.

5. ``The Notebook,'' $13 million.

6. ``Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,'' $11.4 million.

7. ``Shrek 2,'' $10.5 million.

8. ``Garfield: The Movie,'' $7 million.

9. ``Two Brothers,'' $6.2 million.

10. ``The Stepford Wives,'' $5.2 million.

[queer outlaw]

1. How did BartCop know ...

... that it would top $20 million? :)

[fdr_hst_fan]

4. That was an EASY call:

any time someone wants to CENSOR something before it's even released, that almost automatically guarantees big box office returns! If "The Reagans" had been a theatrical release instead of a TV miniseries, the same thing would have happened.

[fdr_hst_fan]

2. If this figure holds true, or

goes up, Eisner and Disney are going to look like SMACKED MICE! And Disney stockholders should rise up in righteous wrath!

[lovedems]

5. That was my first thought.

Eisner makes another bunk business decision!

[truthisfreedom]

7. naw... they still own a piece of it. but they're donating the money

to charity! hahahahahahahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Tellurian]

8. The receipts for todays and tonight's performances haven't be counted

in the weeknd total yet. We have to wait until tomorrow for the final count.

[goforit]

3. How has it compared to the Passion?

[ContinentalOp]

9. The Passion made $83,848,082 on opening weekend

in 3,043 theaters for a $27,554 per theater average. F911 has a $25,115 per theater average for this weekend.

But the amazing thing is to compare F911 to other documentaries. It's already the biggest grossing documentary ever in just one weekend!

[Tellurian]

10. The Passion is a movie..F911 is a documentary..no comparison

as well as the proceeds amt..

Moore's only competition is himself..

for Bowling for Columbine. F911 will be a record breaker..

I think it will break $87M at least, within a month.

[Rainbowreflect]

6. I just heard that.

Amazing, I was hoping for 10 million.
The truth may set us all free. Yeah Michael!!!!!!

[Cocoa]

11. CBS Evening News said it's NOT a documentary

John Roberts said today that it's a "political satire, not a documentary."

He must be mad that Moore called the CBS Evening News propaganda. Ironic that Roberts proves Moore's point for him. :-)

[hatrack]

12. Yes, and if the CBS Evening News says it, it MUST be true!!!

Just as Katie Couric's considered journalistic position that "Navy SEALs rock!!" must be true as well.

[jdj]

13. It slays me that they continue to "miss the point" on purpose

Like the other day Paula Zahn had a dem and a GOP goon on her show, and they showed the clip where Bush says everyone needs to get real serious about terrorism, and then says "now watch this drive" ( he was in the middle of a golf game), and I mean, the moment is so revealing, yet Zahn is defending the goon about the McCain Feingold rule, and said, "come on, that clip is incredibly humiliating to the President". INCREDIBLY HUMILIATING? As if he didn't speak the words, and make an ass out of his own self. W. showed his true colors and someone got in on film, and she's acting like he's being victimized. Unbelievable. Like one when one of the helmet hair anchordrones asked Moore why he humiliated people in Bowling for Columbine, and he said, to paraphrase, no, I put them in front of the camera and THEY HUMILIATE THEMSELVES.

The good thing was that since these redneck GOP guidos are making a stink about the ads, every show covering their hissy fit is showing the ads in their entirety, which is a HUGE mistake because the ads are top-notch, and that clip with Bush made even me think about if I had ever seen a sitting president act so nonchalant about the death of American citizens, and I already despise W.

Which is a long way of saying, this is NOT satire, it is basically just getting alot of clips together and running them in a way to tell a story. VH1's "Illustrated" is skewering Bush every single night, they are absolutely killing him, one clip they had the other night had him in Iraq in front of a sign that said "minefield" and he was struggling to sound out the words and then said 'mine' and 'field' and burst out with "that's right, this means everything in this field is MINE" proceeded to almost blow himself up, but was rescued by a now bionic Cheney. Whoever is doing the voice on him is awesome, it's dead on. Now THAT'S satire.

[joycep]

14. I am so glad it's doing well

Our Church is going as a group soon. I think it is the 9th. I am really looking forward to that. I had planned on seeing it sooner, but I will wait.

[Moderator]

15. ABB_15501

In the future, do not copy the article in its entirety. Please excerpt up to four paragraphs from the article. Thanks.

Link to LBN Rules

[No Mandate Here.]

16. Will do.

Sorry. Hard to choose this time. News too good.

[UTUSN]

17. Kick n/t

[cliss]

18. I LOVE Moore's comment about the freepers:

"I want to thank the...it's only encouraged more people to go and see it". Words cannot express how much delight I got out of reading that one.

This is very similar to what George Soros said recently. He said that the more the freepers harass him, the more he's going to give to Move On and Kerry. That ought to shut them up.

This is exactly what happened to Al Franken and his book "Lying Liars". Fox news tried to stop him from publishing the book. They even took him to court. They lost. That lawsuit caused so much media attention that Franken probably sold 50% more books because of it.

LOVE IT!

[Moderator]

19. duplicate + please only post 4 paragraphs, per DU copyright rules

Here is the earlier thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x649833