Fahrenheit 9/11 is already the top grossing documentary of all that have been tracked since 1982, passing up Bowling for Columbine. It’s showing in 868 theaters.
Only five of the top 100 opened in more than 100 theaters. Only 17 ever showed in more than 100 theaters.
There’s no way to compare F911 to any other documentary ever released. Bowling only ever showed in 248 theaters, so you already have a three times better chance of seeing F911, no matter how far away from you it is.
And while they timed the release well, who could possibly imagine a documentary beating out a summer comedy for the number one spot, even if it is the slowest weekend of the summer? Utterly unprecedented.
Despite the hype, I hadn’t thought that it would really have much sway in the election, especially this early. I assumed that, like the coverage of Reagan’s funeral, only those who already bought in would be reinforced by the message.
I might be wrong. This movie will have legs. I’ll bet people will see it more than once - and when was the last time you heard anybody say that about a documentary?
BTW, Control Room, the documentary about the Al-Jazeera tv network, is well worth seeing.
I saw it last night in a Huge Shopping Center/Theatre here in So Cal. I bought my tickets on Fandango earlier in the day and when we went to pick them up the showing was sold out. We were an hour early and were thinking about getting some grub before going in but I’m glad we didn’t because they had already started lining up.
I really, really hope this movie continues it’s popularity.
Its weekend total estimate is $21.96 million (counting two NY theatres where it opened on Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, that bumps the average up by a good bit. It’s now $25,299.54, which is more than HP.
It was intentionally released on an off weekend (no documentary is going to compete with Spider-Man 2), and this is a bad comparison. Spider-Man 2 is a better-known, much more publicized movie. It’s going to open on (I imagines) something like 4,000 screens, and it’ll be on multiple screens in the big theatres. Much of Fahrenheit’s take is probably from smaller, ‘art-house’ type places. Spider-Man will be basically everywhere.
Did anyone else have a very emotional reaction to the movie? I saw it on Friday evening (standing room only crowd). Certainly there were parts that I found funny and others that made me angry. But from the audio of the 9/11 attacks onward, I cried through almost the entire film. The scenes from Iraq hit me very hard. I am a teacher, and one of my (adult) students is from Baghdad and still has family there. As I was watching the scenes of the dead and injured children and the woman screaming about the destruction of her home and the midnight raid, I just kept thinking, “That could be her family.” Then, when Lila was telling her story and the story of her son…I just found it to be so emotionally overwhelming. I try to follow the news and I try to read as much as I can from different sources. But this film hit me like a truck. After the lights came up I just sat and cried for several minutes. It was a while before I could even talk with my husband and friend (who had seen it with me) about it.
My emotions are generally pretty close to the surface, and I’m a sleep deprived mother of young children, so I’m sure that was most of it. But I just found this to be an extremely powerful movie that hit me on an emotional level. I was pretty unprepared for it but very glad I saw it. I hope I will get to see it again, I know there was a lot I missed.
I’m disappointed in Dave. I figured he was fair-minded enough to see a movie before he trashed it and to see the movie in order to understand Moore’s case against Bush. I guess I was wrong.
Hill o Beans– I, too, had a surprisingly emotional reaction to it. I cried several times. At one point, it was almost actually sobbing. I didn’t expect that at all.
I have seen 9/11 footage and war footage from Iraq many times and while it makes me sad and upset it usually doesn’t spur me to actual tears. This did. And it did it to the two grown men I was with also.
Let’s see – one movie is a sequel to a very successful franchise film two years in the making about a 30-plus year old fictional character known to several generations that most 5-year year olds worldwide can recognize, and is positioned to be tthe blockbuster movie of the summer opening on an estimated 4,000 screens and has tie-ins from fast food to a failed baseball endeavor that went south; one is a documentary – a genre that typically appeals to a very small audience – that only began the publicity machine since its reception in Cannes a month and a half ago, about one white guy on one side of the American political spectrum criticizing the administration on the other side of the political spectrum.
Thank you. But I’m only right by a little bit. After all, Fahrenheit 9/11 made $21.8 million this weekend. Spider-Man two will probably have made more money by Saturday than Fahrenheit will make in its entire run. :rolleyes:
Fahrenheit 9/11 has gotten more attention from news sources. I have no doubt Spider-Man’s producers have spent more on advertising and promotion (which is what I was talking about) than Moore spent making his movie. By a long shot.
I held it together through the movie, but there were some difficult spots where I thought I was going to start crying. And I don’t normally have emotions at all, for the most part. Lila’s pain and the Iraqi woman’s rant were hard to watch. It was difficult to imagine how helpless the Iraqi woman must feel, seeing her relations killed. And it was hard seeing her railing at god for justice, knowing that justice would not be forthcoming. Those responsible, Bush and his associates, will be rich and powerful no matter what happens in Iraq.
I was a little disappointed with F9/11 in that it didn’t provide an incontrovertible step-by-step proof that Bush was corrupt. For the most part Moore shows associations and connections that are disturbing, but not entirely damning. For instance, the Bush family’s ties to the house of Saud certainly makes me suspicious. But showing the Bushes to have a connection doesn’t prove that that connection motivated them to do any particular thing.
Of course, it’d take a large amount of credulity to believe that all the connections are innocent. But a lot of the american public has shown themselves to have an amazing capacity for credulity.
I’m surprised I made it to the thread before it became a trainwreck. I thought the right-wingers would have been here by now.
I just got back from traveling today. I tried to see it earlier today but it was sold out, so I got tickets for a later show and I just got back from it.
Hill o Beans There was a great deal of emotional effect in the movie. How can a person not be affected when you see the Iraqi people’s lives turned upside down or Lila’s life without her son? I was watching in disbelief when that when Lila went to the White House, that lady came in saying that “this is staged” and starts challenging Lila when and where her son died.
Objectively speaking, I’ve seen all of Moore’s stuff and have always appreciated that he gives voice to the “little guy.” In the past few years, I’ve come to understand that his work sometimesdistortsthe truth. to make his point. So wheras I don’t allow Moore to make my mind up for me, I do appreciate him asking the tough questions and I look forward to seeing how this movie will stand up to scrutiny. I hope it stands up well.
I have always admired Christopher Hitchens even though he is on the opposite side of the political spectrum. I would love to see Moore debate Hitchens or even Coulter for that matter. Neither of them suffer fools gladly.
I would expect an emotional response to the film since that is what it is designed to engender in the audience. It isn’t meant to enlighten or provoke thought or inform. It isn’t meant to be a fair minded or accurate look at the events surrounding 9/11 or the Iraq war. It is a propaganda piece made as much for the self-aggrandisement of its maker as for any other purpose. The sad part of it is that people will go to this movie and have a poorer understanding of the situation we are now in than they did before they went. This is how you judge the worth of any “documentary.” In this regard it fails miserably for all of the reasons that Hitchens mentions in his criticism.
It does enlighten, provoke thought and inform, as well as cause a genuine emotional response in many, and conservative talking points aren’t going to change that.
I’d say it’s fairer and more accurate than what we’ve been fed by the adminstration and the conservative media.
Buzzwords and talking points are losing their effectiveness, and conservatives are hopping mad about it. This movie is for the people. It’s for US, not Moore, and I thank him for making it.
You are so wrong. People are coming out of the movie questioning, angry, upset and wanting change. People felt helpless after 9/11. They wanted to be led. They wanted to be told what to do. That trust was shit on by the Bush administration, and people are finally waking up to it.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary (no quotes), like it or not.
I think it suceeds admirably. You need to read Chris Parry’s article too.
Have you seen the movie, btw?
Just got back from seeing it. Even here in Ames, there were long lines, and all of the shows are selling out.
It was a packed house, which was pretty neat, given the audience’s responses. Sometimes it was hard to hear because people were laughing so hard (at parts).
I’ve never laughed and cried at the same time before.
I don’t think it was intended to be a pure, balanced look at the facts. It was a wakeup call against all the talk coming from the right that’s been dominating the mass media. I don’t agree with everything Moore stated (his conclusions were a bit much), but I definitely feel, just as I did before, that Bush has been a horrible president who has completely abused our trust and our goodwill. I hope this film helps us vote him out.
The only pre-opening estimates I’d heard for Fahrenheit 9/11 was a Friday-morning guess from a movie industry analyst who had expected it to place fifth or sixth in the weekend box office. “There’s only 800-some theaters showing it; more mainstream pictures will easily beat it, and White Chicks will probably get #1 for this weekend.” So in retrospect, it’s reassuring to see Fahrenheit 9/11 stomp over a lame-ass piece of trash like White Chicks.
Not to drag politics into this thread (IMO, political analysis of F911 should be in Great Debates), but I think the most effective point of this movie is to simply remind everyone of all that’s happened in the past four years. There isn’t a lot of stuff in the movie that’s new, but there is a lot of stuff – the Bin Laden’s early departure, low funding for security matters, the miniscule effort in Afghanistan, the numerous attempts to tie Iraq to Al Qaeda, troop level problems in Iraq, etc. – that’s fallen by the wayside. Moore reassembles these issues into a “Worst of” collection, and challenges the viewer to remain supportive of Bush in their presence.
And I dunno about MsRobyn, but any SO who wanted me to “get permission” before I could see a movie would be looking at divorce papers inside of a micron. But then, I’m one of those old-fashioned folks who believe in spouses treating each other with mutual respect and support…
But I’m only right by a little bit. After all, Fahrenheit 9/11 made $21.8 million this weekend. Spider-Man two will probably have made more money by Saturday than Fahrenheit will make in its entire run. :rolleyes:
