'Anti-Bush' film a hit in US
2004-06-27 22:00
Los Angeles - Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's assault on President George W Bush, took in $8.2m to $8.4m in its first day, positioning it as the weekend's No. 1 film, its distributors said on Saturday.
Based on Friday's numbers, Fahrenheit 9/11 was on track for an opening weekend that would surpass the $21.6m total gross of Moore's Bowling for Columbine, his 2002 film that earned him an Academy Award for best documentary.
Bowling for Columbine holds the record for highest domestic gross among documentaries, excluding concert films and movies made for huge-screen Imax theatres.
Friday grosses for Fahrenheit 9/11 ran about $1.5m ahead of its closest competitor, the Wayans brothers comedy White Chicks.
The performance of Fahrenheit 9/11 was even more remarkable considering it played in just 868 theatres, fewer than a third the number for White Chicks.
Fahrenheit 9/11 benefited from a flurry of praise and condemnation.
Supporters mobilised liberal-minded audiences to see it over opening weekend to counter efforts by some right-wing groups to discredit the film.
"It always helps when there's a group out there that says, 'Don't go see this movie.
It's bad for you,"' said Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Films, one of the film's distributors.
Fahrenheit 9/11 paints Bush as a neglectful president who ignored terrorism warnings before September 11, then stirred up fear of more attacks to win public support for the Iraq war.
The movie won the top honour at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The film has ridden a wave of publicity since just before Cannes, when Moore began assailing the Walt Disney for refusing to let subsidiary Miramax release Fahrenheit 9/11 because of its political content.
Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought back the film and hooked up with Lions Gate Films and IFC to distribute it.
- AP