Box Office Report: Anti-Obama Doc Top Advance Seller on Fandango

1:18 PM PDT 8/22/2012 by Pamela McClintock, Paul Bond

48
114
1
0
61
Email
Print
Comments

The film -- which is being heavily touted on talk radio -- expands nationwide on Friday in advance of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

Conservative documentary 2016: Obama's America is selling more advance tickets than any other film, according to online ticketing service Fandango.

Box Office Report: Anti-Obama Doc Drawing Big Crowds, Even in New York City

The anti-Barack Obama documentary, based on conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Roots of Obama’s Rage, expands nationwide on Friday after doing notable business in select markets.

Co-directed by D'Souza and John Sullivan, the documentary will be playing in 1,075 theaters in an aggressive expansion that comes on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., which gets underway Aug. 27.

PHOTOS: The 20 Biggest Political Players in Hollywood

On Wednesday, Obama's America was easily the top seller on Fandango, unusual for an independent film. Rocky Mountain Pictures is distributing the doc.

Last weekend, the film grossed an impressive $1.2 million last weekend as it upped its theater count from 61 to 169 for a total gross of $2 million, the second-best showing of the year for a documentary after Bully ($3.2 million). That doesn't include nature documentaries Chimpanzee ($29 million) and To the Arctic ($7.6 million).

It's already the No. 12 political documentary of all time -- a market that Michael Moore has cornered -- as well as the No. 2 conservative documentary after Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed ($7.7 million).

Obama's America first began rolling out in mid-July and has been adding theaters slowly. On Aug. 10, it opened in a number of markets, including New York and Los Angeles (including the conservative Simi Valley).

Some in Hollywood were stumped by the amount of business the documentary has done at the Regal Union Square Stadium 14 in Lower Manhattan, situated in a liberal neighborhood where films from the likes of Moore have done huge business.

Obama's America intends to show how the country's future will look if President Obama is elected to a second term in the White House and includes an interview with the president's half brother, George Obama.