It would appear that the Sarah Palin docu-flick "The Undefeated" has laid an egg, crashed and burned, and is DOA.
But then, what else did anyone expect?
More over the fold.....
Of course, we have the story:
"First Reports on THE UNDEFEATED Boxoffice Gross"
And we have the spin:
"This is a documentary opening against Harry Potter on the toughest weekend of the year. We had small numbers but only in small theaters. In bigger markets, like Orange County, we'll do $12,000 per screen,” Bannon said.
“One theater had, like, 95 seats. Most places upgraded us to a bigger screen because of demand. Where we had the capacity, we did more than $10,000 per screen,” he said.
But, of course, we have the industry professionals who know what the numbers say:
The backers of the Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated claimed victory as the film opened in 10 theaters over the weekend, but the numbers suggest only a so-so debut.
Undefeated grossed $60,000 to $75,000, meaning a per-screen average of $6,000 or $7,500, the measure by which limited openings are judged. A screen average below $10,000 is considered mediocre.
If one looks more closely, the numbers are even more disappointing. Assuming $60,000 spread over 10 theaters, and assuming 5 showings a day - that is 50 showings to gross $6,000 per theatre. Which would mean that only around 100 people are attending an average showing. And this is in supposed Palin 'strongholds'.
One is also struck by the number of rationalizations the distributors make in trying to convince themselves that they have a bona fide turkey on their hands.
One need only look one month back to ATLAS SHRUGGED" - and its opening weekend numbers:
ATLAS SHRUGGED OPENING WEEKEND BOXOFFICE
And note the same rationalizations over nearly equal per-screen numbers:
Boosters of Atlas Shrugged: Part I might point to the movie's per theater average to spin it as a success (ex. "it did almost as much per theater as Scream 4!"), but spin is all it is. It's a common ploy to cling to per-theater average to rationalize a soft run. Obviously, it's easier for a small release to have a higher per-theater average than one at over 3,000 theaters (at any rate, Scream 4 was a disappointment itself).
So - we can now look forward tot his clunker sinking slowly in the ALeutian West (where perhaps it will soon be able to see Russia!!) - and to join its sister film in a few limited memories of a VERY disappointing Summer for Teabaggers.
The UNDEFEATED - 0% Critics Score!!