Abrams' New "Star Trek" Loaded with Political ...
End Times: Violence and Destruction at Cannes ...
All Tomorrow's Parties: "The Great Gatsby" ...
Will Aronofsky's "Noah" Inflame Religious ...
The Best and Worst of Sundance 2013
Where is Jafar Panahi's "The White Ballo ...Will Palin Doc "The Undefeated" Be Defeated at the Box Office?
Opening in 10 cities across the nation from sea to shining sea today -- from Orange County, CA to Orlando, FL -- "The Undefeated' is poised to break out big at the box office in limited release, further fomenting Palin fever among Tea Party members and right-wing fans.
The film has encountered scathing reviews, a 34 out of 100 on Metacritic.com, with the L.A. Times calling it "a troop-rallying campaign infomercial as imagined by Michael Bay: hero-worshipping, crescendo-edited at a dizzying pace, thunderously repetitive and its own worst enemy as a two-hour, talking-points briefing."
But such negative criticism from the "mainstream media" should only inflame the passions of Palinistas, and confirm their stereotypes of the left-wing press, fueling further ticket sales.
I wouldn't be surprised if most of the first weekend's shows were sold out. Opening weekend anticipation is high among Palin's devoted followers, and a similar initial excitement greeted the Tea Party embraced "Atlas Shrugged" film a few weeks ago. When "Atlas Shrugged" opened on a much wider 299 screens in April, the film had a formidable $5,640 per-theater average, with an overall weekend gross of nearly $1.7 million. But the "Atlas Shrugged" buzz quickly fell off in its second weekend, and the film's average crashed in subsequent weekends.
I suspect "The Undefeated" will follow a similar trajectory, but distributors Cinedigm Entertainment Group are keeping things small, surely to tout a mammoth per-theater average as it crawls around the country.
I can already see the Sunday evening press releases that will proclaim the film's per-theater average as record-breaking. For comparison, Michael Moore's "Sicko" currently holds the record for the highest grossing per-theater average when it opened on one screen and earned $69,000. A better comparison might be Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," which opened in 8 theaters, and came away with a $26,143 average. For other context: When the Oprah-supported "Precious" opened in 18 theaters, it had an astounding average of $104,025.
But the proof of the success of "The Undefeated" will take much longer to determine than opening weekend. Either way, the highly targeted release--borrowing from the DIY-style grassroots city-by-city campaigns long established by indie companies--is a smart move for a film that has a strong and devoted niche. Palin fans will be paying up not to see a movie, but to support their candidate. Which, of course, is fine by producers Victory Film Group, distrib Cinedigm and exhib AMC Theaters. Where there's an audience, there's a dollar.
As director Stephen Bannon told me in this Wall Street Journal Online interview, "Let’s be brutally frank: There’s not that much great product for conservatives. I’m a capitalist. We have to prove that there’s a market out there for this product. Look, Al Gore had $15 million in P&A from Paramount; Michael Moore had $15-20 from the Weinsteins [on "Fahrenheit 9/11"]. But social media has changed things. We have a couple of million dollars in P&A, and we’ll see how it does over time."
Latest Tweets
-
RT @thompowers: Rithy Panh documentary A MISSING PICTURE wins Un Certain Regard at #Cannes2013 http://t.co/bQr9TZh1lO @antkaufman
Posted 5 hours ago -
Rithy Panh documentary A MISSING PICTURE wins Un Certain Regard at #Cannes2013 http://t.co/bQr9TZh1lO @antkaufman
Posted 8 hours ago -
Rare for Cannes, a documentary wins top honors in Un Certain Regard #Cannes2013 | ReelPolitik http://t.co/jRstv4MqiN
Posted 9 hours ago -
Political Pics on Khmer Rouge and Palestinian Occupation Win Cannes Prizes | ReelPolitik http://t.co/IxicbSMvGB
Posted 11 hours ago
5 Comments
cory | July 17, 2011 10:41 AM
The LA Times newspaper interviews "The Undefeated" filmmaker Stephen Bannon about the film's opening success (link below):
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/07/sarah-palin-documentary-the-undefeated-opens-will-roll-out-to-other-cities.html
cory | July 17, 2011 10:40 AM
According to PRNewswire.com, ARC Entertainment, the distributor for the documentary about Sarah Palin called "The Undefeated", the opening for the film has been stronger than expected (link below):
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arc-entertainment-announces-strong-opening-for-the-undefeated-with-multiple-sold-out-runs-and-vocal-audience-support-125713108.html
Bonaire | July 17, 2011 6:53 AM
Pacifcone why are you a troll here?
The grifter did no such thing.
SMARTERTHANYOU | July 17, 2011 3:20 AM
Wow, you were really on the mark here. Seems like "The Undefeated" will perform in theaters on par with Palin's campaigns outside Alaska.
Pacificone | July 16, 2011 4:10 AM
Why is Palin hated so much? I went to the documentary and WOW! This dumb @#$#@*% woman took on big oil and won! We can't have that happening in the lower 48! So destroy, destroy, and destroy. Now I get it. Big oil got beat be a back country woman and it is payback time. What will it be . . . the good old boys club or someone who can actually take on the fat cats and win for the American people! Go see the documentary for yourself and decide.