The big news coming out of Hollywood this weekend is that the anti-Obama documentary 2016: Obama's America, based on the discredited book by Dinesh D'Souza, will likely be the #3 or #4 film at the national box office. On Friday, it made an estimated $2,255,000 in its first day in wide release.
So how impressive is that? Well, it ain't bad for a documentary, so give it credit for that. But when compared to a similar release - that of Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004 - the movie's box office total doesn't look nearly so impressive.
Currently, Obama's America is playing in 1,091 theaters. That means it has a per/screen average of $2,067.
Now compare that to F 9/11. That movie opened in 868 theaters on August 24, 2004, earning $8,556,000, for a per/screen average of $9,868.
That's about four times the amount of the Obama-bashing documentary!
We don't yet know what Obama's America will make for the weekend but it will probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of $8,000,000. Contrast that with F 9/11 which earned $24,000,000 its opening weekend and did so in fewer theaters!
It should also be pointed out that the Michael Moore film was the #1 movie that weekend, a feat Obama's America will come nowhere near duplicating.
And, to top it off, average movie ticket prices are around $1.50 more now than they were in 2004!
Also bear in mind that, despite earning a massive $119 million + at the box office by the end of its run - by far the largest total for any documentary ever - it still could not prevent Bush from being re-elected.
So let the right crow all it wants to on Monday. It won't mean a thing in the long run.
All box office totals courtesy of boxofficemojo.com.
9:22 AM PT: The weekend numbers are in and it doesn't look good for "2016: Obama's America."
The movie slid to 8th place with an estimated weekend total of $6,238,000.
A far cry from F 9/11's $24,000,000 and first place finish.