Farenheit 9/11 #1 at the box office this weekend

"Fahrenheit 9/11 ," in which Moore takes aim at President Bush, and the war in Iraq, opened at No. 1 after selling about $21.8 million worth of tickets in the United States and Canada since June 25.

The film opened in two theaters in New York on Wednesday to help build even more media buzz before expanding to a relatively modest 868 theaters two days later. (In contrast, most of the other movies in the top five were playing in more than 2,500 theaters each.)

This was taken from here

I knew the film would be #1, but the thing that I found most impressive was the fact that the movie was shown in only 868 theaters. I just don't understand why it would not have been in more theaters. Thoughts?

Most theatres will not take "documentaries," hence, that is why it was not shown in as many theatres as the other movies.

As far as it being number 1; do you see how much "controversy" helps? It has already made back it's budget three times over - it had a $6,000,000 budget. And I am sure it will make much more. It sure as hell helped The Passion of the Christ. That movie had a $30,000,000 budget and it is now the 21st highest world-wide grossing film ever... thanks to "controversy," that film grossed $604,211,518: www.imdb.com...

Mad Mel pocketed $210,000,000 from that film: www.forbes.com...

Yeah, he's a believer all right. Let's not even mention how much he is going to pocket from DVD sales of the movie. I just love how people "worship" and "love" God when there is money involved.

Anyways, "controversy" brings in the money.

[edit on 6-27-2004 by EmbryonicEssence]

The one thing I found funny about it being #1 though. The two movies it beat out to be #1:

White Chicks
Dodgeball

No wonder it was number 1 He put it up against these sure to be classics. I think Ted Turner is interested in buying the right to White Chicks so he can air it on TCM

LOL

yep not much competetion... By the way, this doesnt seem to a blockbuster summer yet.

Wait for spider-man 2 to come out Im sure Fahrenheit 9/11 wont be on the top for long

Spiderman 2 will make most forget about Moores propaganda flick...

MICHAEL MOORE'S FAHRENHEIT 9-11

Was Fahrenheit 9-11 nothing but strung-together anti-Bush Propaganda?

Well, yes....and no.

Either way it sure will cause people to talk about it, and that is the life blood of any film in this post modern age of the DVD and rental movies where people would just as soon stay at home and not be hassled by tickets and crowds and noisy talkers...

But the audience I was with near midnight last Monday kept themselves GLUED to the screen: this is the kind of film that grabs your attention then HOLDS it....which means, Guaranteed Box Office !

But what about its contents? Can you believe any of it?

Moore did string together a great deal of "hard news" information which was kept OUT of the American Press: e.g. the number of dead and mutilated Iraqi civilians, especially young children, are actually shown IN COLOUR often with their body parts blown out, we see the anguish on the face of several Iraqi mothers who've lost their entire family in the bombing (asking Why are you Doing This to Us? What did WE do to YOU Americans?):

Also, there are hints to the Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Scandal which violated the 4th Geneva Convention which left the audience visibly shaken.

Moore also showed the unmistakeable fact that throughout the heavy March-April 2003 bombings, the US deliberately targeted Iraqi civilian locations (e.g. marketplaces, schools, banks, libraries, and other "civilian infrastructures" meant to emotionally paralyse the already "economically sanctioined" Iraqi population and "bomb them back" a few technological centuries), and Moore included a touching human interest in the story involving a "real life" Flint, Michigan "patriotic flag waiving" American mother whose son was killed in action.

Michael Moore is of course also from Flint MI, and so the implication is that this whole mess has touched him personally.

Moore's clever (and sometime cruel) splicing-together of interviews pepper the film (at one point, Moore approaches some US congressmen with young adult children to ask them to get their "kids" to sign up for duty) and the looks on the congressmen's faces speaks volumes about the double standard of the ruling elite in this country.

This is the kind of brave "journalism" effect which clearly was one of the highlights of the film.

But, by the same token, Mr Moore left a good bit of the hard facts of the "larger" story OUT which would have produced a counter-visceral reaction (e.g. Moore's choice deliberately NOT to show visuals of the hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center in NYC).

Also curiously absent from Moore's film was any reference to Israel or Israelis and especially the FIVE LAUGHING ISRAELI MOSSAD AGENTS who were arrested the morning of 9-11 perched atop the adjacent bldg to the WTC taking pictures of the event as it happened.

Transcripts of their detention and interrogation by the FBI and CIA are now classified TOP SECRET by the US Govt, as are ANY Israeli links to 9-11, are "Classified Top Secret: National Security Issue") and apparently involved the socalled "Babylonian Exile" term "Operation Shekinah"(which Americans have re-named Shock-And-Awe)

But he DID mention the FACT that 11 out of ther 15 hijackers were SAUDIs (and NONE were in fact, Iraqis) and showed a number of times the "doublespeak" (read: lies) of the US government (including Ms Condoleeza Rice, Mr Wolfowitz, Mr Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) on the pseudo-connection between Saddam Hussein and 9-11, as well as the socalled Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and the "pending threat" to the US of Iraq and Al-Qaida which they all claimed for half a year ad nauseam were somehow in cahoots with each other....

The lies of the present Administration were exposed again and again, something which the US press has been loathe to point out with any vigour until fairly recently.

Also featured in the film was the Bush Family's disturbing and long-standing Saudi connection (generally avoided in the US press) and the fact that several prominent members of the (Saudi born) Bin Laden family were allowed special transportation to leave the US on 9-13 at a time when US citizens were grounded, and the fact that the Bin Ladens were allowed to leave the country without being interrogated by the CIA or the FBI raises some disturbing questions about Bush and his "PNAC" circle of oilmen.

Moore however "mysteriously" left out Bush' s "Masonic" Skull and Bones Connection at Yale University (both Kerry and Bush are members of that Elite Establishment which boasts a number of corporate and high level political leaders in the US): that would have added a little credibility to his film, but may have tarnished Kerry and the Democratic ticket...it seems Moore wants specifically to reveal ONLY the dirt on proBush Republicans

On balance was actually kind of a refreshing to see another view (knowing that the editing was deliberately provacative in advance), that is, apart from all the blind pro-war, blind pro-Zionist, blind pro-Bush propaganda that Americans have been subjected to since before the invasion of Iraq in the US "news" (or rather, Dis-InfoTainment) over the 5 corporate controlled major news media outlets (e.g. CBS NBC ABC CNN FOX, which means ONLY 5 Corporations control almost ALL of the "News" that passes over the airwaves in the US).

The impression one has while leaving the theatre is: the American people have been duped (again!) and lied-to by an Administration who cares nothing for the Truth, or else feels the average American "can't handle the truth" about our real reasons for being over there in the first place in the 21st century---something rarely seriously discussed in the US press : O-I-L.

The movie has made close to $40 million so far.
The number of theaters showing it has risen from 868 to 1,184 Box Office Mojo

This weekend should push it above $50 million even though it's now competing with Spider-Man 2.

Disney should be kicking itself right now.

[edit on 2-7-2004 by AceOfBase]

Well, it broke the $50 million mark on Saturday.
The number of theaters is now at 1,725

It's the number two movie, well below Spider-Man 2

boxofficemojo.com...

Originally posted by AceOfBase

Disney should be kicking itself right now.

[edit on 2-7-2004 by AceOfBase]

This is peanuts, that is why Disney won't even give a rat's about this flick. $6 million to make, another $10 million to market. That is a net of $34 million. While that is a lot of money to you and I, Disney probably would want to make a little more than that on a flick.

Originally posted by nyarlathotepThis is peanuts, that is why Disney won't even give a rat's about this flick. $6 million to make, another $10 million to market. That is a net of $34 million. While that is a lot of money to you and I, Disney probably would want to make a little more than that on a flick.

That's $50 million for only a little more than a week and just for the US.
DVD sales plus International ticket sales will probably push the total over $100 million eventually.

Compare the profits of F9/11 with some of Disney's other movies this year like "The Alamo" and "Around the World in 80 Days."

The Alamo costs $107 million to produce and $30 million to market.
It only pulled in $23,751,623 worldwide so far in 28 days.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS costs $110 million to produce and $30 million to market. So far, in 18 days, it's only pulled in $22,298,000 worldwide.

[edit on 4-7-2004 by AceOfBase]

im kind of surprised that movie is still making money it should be banned from theaters as it dose nothing but lies to the viewers damn that Michael moore

Someone should make a film called Celcius Pre-911 and exposed our all but holy Clinton...