Was anyone else expecting during the movie when all the convoluted ties with Bushco and Saudis were rattled off…
“…and who appeared in insert movie here with Kevin Bacon”?
Here’s a link to the breakdown as of August 2003. By then GWB had already taken more “vacation” days than Clinton and Carter had taken in their 12 years in office combined.
Make that two raised eyebrows.
Of course, if either Carter or Clinton had taken that much time off in their first year in office, the Conservatives/Republicans would understand and defend it. They’d know those guys would be “working” anyway, and wouldn’t hold it against them.
Right?
cue Twilight Zone theme
www.boxofficemojo.com has the weekend actuals in and the numbers have been adjusted up, from $21.8 to $23.9 million for the weekend, $24 million total. The average was a whopping $27,558 per screen. Woohoo!
You may be right that in this case, in some theaters, walking into a theater showing F911 with another ticket might have taken a seat from a customer paying for that show. But probably not.
I used to be a theater manager and ticketing systems are usually set for a number slightly lower than the actual seat count. These unsold seats are called “house seats” and in addition to preventing accidental overselling, they let a manager seat last-minute VIPs or other special (read: irate) customers. They also allow for contingencies such as broken seats.
So one or two people slipping into a show probably won’t displace others. Of course, if you slipped in an later see someone standing around looking for a seat, because there aren’t any left, you should let your conscience be your guide.
I heard that, due to the sold-out nature of the film, a number of theaters are checking ticket stubs for Fahrenheit 9/11 before letting people in.
See? It worked on ME! Moore’s method of overlapping images of Osama with those of the Bushes entertaining rich Arabs brainwashed me into believing that they met!
Damn Michael Moore! Damn him to HELL!!!
Loews is one of the few circuits that really opened the film. They had plenty of playdates. I work in film distribution for anoter film company so I know who is and who isn’t playing it. (but I won’t speak as to who isn’t)
Just a few words on per screen average. It’s really not a very useful number for a comparison between two films for several reasons.
One is that a limited release film like F911 showing in the major markets is showing at theatres with a higher average ticket price. Just as some commented that they will have to pay $10 instead of $6 for a local theatre.
Another is that comparing to a film like Harry Potter is not very fair because HP draws many children to the show and those sell at reduced prices.
So really if you have films on a similar number of screens that attract a similar audience then a per screen average is useful, but then you would just use the total gross.
Per screen average is useful to see how well the theatres are doing with a film. Clearly a theatre would rather have a screen gross 24 grand over a weekend then 8 or 9 grand.
If you look at the opening weekend for Troy it looks pretty good at 45 million, but the per screen average was terrible so the theatres had a bad deal there.
I hope to see F911 this week.
Carry on.
I just saw it at a special showing at the American Library Association conference in Orlando Sunday night (man, talk about preaching to the choir!). Good response from that crowd, of course. I’ve heard about people “booing and hissing” at things before, but before John Ashcroft came on the screen at the ALA audience I’d never actually heard an audience hiss at anything.
I was quite impressed, and it didn’t have the heavy-handedness of Bowling for Columbine. I have to wonder, though, how many ties any modern businessman would have to Saudi Arabia - is it really fair to cast such aspersions on the Bush family for their connections when Moore comes right out and says that the Saudis own something like 7% of this country - so “Six Degrees of Osama bin Laden” is a game one could probably play with a whole lot of people. I’m not sure how fair it is to pull that with these particular people, and of course Moore didn’t address that.
If you’re willing, I’ll take that bet. And I even live in Chicago, so we can settle up promptly.
It’s not the ties to Saudi Arabia that’s the problem, it’s the ties to Saudi Arabia coupled with the special treatment given to the Saudis in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Nobody would complain about Bush’s ties to the Saudis if they didn’t get priority queueing to leave the country on 9/13/01, or if Bush exercised his ties to the Sauds to pursue the terrorists in the Kingdom (as opposed to fooling around with Iraq).
3rd and 4th paragraph under the mid-page pic. If you want another source just search for it. Americans like him make me want to move to Canada.
This?
What’s the problem? He’s got a point.
Remember Equipoise, one can not criticize something or want it to improve without HATING it, according to some folks.
So pointing out your country’s shortcomings means that you hate your country? I think not, duffer. It means you love your country and hate to see it going to the dogs. If this were the Pit I’d suggest that America’s gain may be Canada’s loss, but it isn’t, so I shan’t.
Myself, I’ve always liked Senator Schurz’ gloss on the old “my country right or wrong” thing.
In a speech to the Senate in 1872, Schurz put it: “Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”
I think that’s Moore’s take.
I know, sigh.
Northern Piper, I love that quote. This is my current sig on another board (in small font):
"I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’
They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: ‘Our country—when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.’” — Carl Schurz, October 17, 1899
Carl Schurz: German immigrant, Senator, Ambassador, Secretary of the Interior, Editor, Writer, Republican
You know, I’m a lefty myself, but Moore does frequently tread a mighty fine line between criticizing his country’s actions and being one of those self-loathing Americans I find really tiresome.
I re-watched The Big One a couple of days ago, and Moore’s final line in the movie was “One evil empire down, one to go.”
And I got the impression he was only half joking.
Another former theater manager here, and I’d have to respectfully disagree. Yes, we had buffers on admissions, too, but that was because not all seats are agreeable to people–some are too close to the screen or too far to the left or right. Also, the fuller a theater gets, the less likely that you’ll find two or more seats together, and some people don’t want to go to a film with their SO only to have to sit six rows away from each other.
I’d say that anyone who sneaks into a film is likely to take a more preferable seat, increasing the likelihood that rightful ticket-buyers will not find seats that are either comfortable or together, which means they have to compromise their experience or ask for a refund. So that still makes the “sneaker” a jerk.
Let me get this straight: You resent sharing citizenship with people who are opposed to ignorance?
Uh…