Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" tops "Break up"

[Black Dog]

Yes, I have a few prejudices for a film about adultery (none the less a homosexual affair) especially when it is passed off as "love story".

I trust you hold "Walk the Line" in the same contempt, then.

It is a great example of where the liberal mindset is on issues such as marriage, family and commitment to be able to call this a love story instead of a family targedy

The film hardly shied away from the tragic. It certainly was blunt in its depiction of the effect Jack and Ennis' affair had on their families. But you clearly couldn't get past the gay gay gay gay.

Here are the figures after 3 weeks for the Gore flop.

"An Inconvenient Truth" - total gross = $3,952,000

just to let you compare,

"X-Men: The Last Stand" (also only out for 3 weeks) - total gross = $201,716,000

Apples. Oranges.

Hey genuis, the numbers are accurate, there is nothing dishonest about them. The fact that it only plays in selected theatres is not an excuse (we'll it is to liberals who can't compete, so they throw theatre averages out instead of gross $ amount just like with brokeback. You don't here anything about per theatre average when talking about 'The Da Vince code' do you?). At the end of the day this is what it has made so far, PERIOD!

You know why they don't use per theatre averages for films like X-Men or Da Vinci? Because those numbers are small, given the market saturation those films have. As BM said: if the film makes back what it cost and more, it's a success, not a flop. "Brokeback" was a success. So, it would appear, is "An Inconvienient Truth."

In any case, it's futile arguing with someone so blinded by idealogical predjudices.

[America1]

Yes, I have a few prejudices for a film about adultery (none the less a homosexual affair) especially when it is passed off as "love story".

I trust you hold "Walk the Line" in the same contempt, then.

It is a great example of where the liberal mindset is on issues such as marriage, family and commitment to be able to call this a love story instead of a family targedy

The film hardly shied away from the tragic. It certainly was blunt in its depiction of the effect Jack and Ennis' affair had on their families. But you clearly couldn't get past the gay gay gay gay.

Here are the figures after 3 weeks for the Gore flop.

"An Inconvenient Truth" - total gross = $3,952,000

just to let you compare,

"X-Men: The Last Stand" (also only out for 3 weeks) - total gross = $201,716,000

Apples. Oranges.

Hey genuis, the numbers are accurate, there is nothing dishonest about them. The fact that it only plays in selected theatres is not an excuse (we'll it is to liberals who can't compete, so they throw theatre averages out instead of gross $ amount just like with brokeback. You don't here anything about per theatre average when talking about 'The Da Vince code' do you?). At the end of the day this is what it has made so far, PERIOD!

You know why they don't use per theatre averages for films like X-Men or Da Vinci? Because those numbers are small, given the market saturation those films have. As BM said: if the film makes back what it cost and more, it's a success, not a flop. "Brokeback" was a success. So, it would appear, is "An Inconvienient Truth."

In any case, it's futile arguing with someone so blinded by idealogical predjudices.

Yeah, they use total $ amount as a cop-out to "fake it", yeah, you nailed it.

Did you ever think "whythe huge block busters are in ALL of the theatres, instead of just a couple? - Perhaps maybe b/c they are willing to "bet" that these movies will draw large crowds regradless of location, unlike Brokeback and the gore flop.

B/c when I know I have a hit, I want it in a only a few locations so that people need to search for to go see it. Now, who is the Blind one again?

[Black Dog]

Yeah, they use total $ amount as a cop-out to "fake it", yeah, you nailed it.

Did you ever think "whythe huge block busters are in ALL of the theatres, instead of just a couple? - Perhaps maybe b/c they are willing to "bet" that these movies will draw large crowds regradless of location, unlike Brokeback and the gore flop.

B/c when I know I have a hit, I want it in a only a few locations so that people need to search for to go see it. Now, who is the Blind one again?

WTF? Do you know anything about the movie business? About distribution? It takes money to get films into theatres. The more money, the more theatres. Films like Brokeback Mountain and An Inconvienient Truth are small budget, niche market films. They aren't designed to compete with the big budget blockbusters and thus should not be evaluated on the same basis. It's apples and oranges.

[August1991]

Yeah, they use total $ amount as a cop-out to "fake it", yeah, you nailed it.

Did you ever think "whythe huge block busters are in ALL of the theatres, instead of just a couple? - Perhaps maybe b/c they are willing to "bet" that these movies will draw large crowds regradless of location, unlike Brokeback and the gore flop.

B/c when I know I have a hit, I want it in a only a few locations so that people need to search for to go see it. Now, who is the Blind one again?

Uh, if I had a well-hyped bomb that I suspected would die once word of mouth got to it, I'd go into wide release from the start.

OTOH, if I had a movie that I thought would build by word of mouth, I'd open in just a few cinemas and let it play for months.

Gore's movie seems to fit into the second category. It's playing in two cinemas in Montreal (English & French) although it may have several screens. It's certainly no Da Vinci Code playing at every multiplex.

In any case, how well it does at the box office is only part of the story. Many movies are about as permanent as the popcorn people eat while watching. Ebert's opinion is worth anything, Gore's movie is exceptional.

I also think this is an interesting trend. People will pay money to watch a documentary in the cinema, and they choose docs as they choose other movies, through name-recognition. I also think Gore is genuine about this - he ain't running for 2008. (Maybe there is life after politics.) Finally, all of the successful docs (Moore, The Yes Men, Enron, The Corporation) have a Left wing slant. Why is that?

[gc1765]

Uh, if I had a well-hyped bomb that I suspected would die once word of mouth got to it, I'd go into wide release from the start.

OTOH, if I had a movie that I thought would build by word of mouth, I'd open in just a few cinemas and let it play for months.

Gore's movie seems to fit into the second category. It's playing in two cinemas in Montreal (English & French) although it may have several screens. It's certainly no Da Vinci Code playing at every multiplex.

True. Which is probably why the number of theatres at which An Inconvenient Truth is playing is steadily increasing, as are the profits. On the other hand, x-men (which has been out for about the same amount of time) is decreasing in number of theatres it is being played at and decreasing in it's gross per weekend.

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

[BubberMiley]

[Hey genuis, the numbers are accurate, there is nothing dishonest about them. The fact that it only plays in selected theatres is not an excuse PERIOD!

A movie that makes that kind of money while only playing on 77 screens is nothing short of an amazing success.

[America1]

[Hey genuis, the numbers are accurate, there is nothing dishonest about them. The fact that it only plays in selected theatres is not an excuse PERIOD!

A movie that makes that kind of money while only playing on 77 screens is nothing short of an amazing success.

yeah, very short of amazing.

[America1]

[Hey genuis, the numbers are accurate, there is nothing dishonest about them. The fact that it only plays in selected theatres is not an excuse PERIOD!

A movie that makes that kind of money while only playing on 77 screens is nothing short of an amazing success.

Yeah BTW, for a movie that had an hour long special dedicated solely too it on MTV, $ 4 mm is NOTHING.

[Darth Buddha]

It's impressive, as any neutral observere would have to admit.

Tell me, was it as full of botched environmental science as "Earth in the Balance"? He discredited serious global warming researchers so badly by association that I have to wonder if his ghost writer was a closet neocon.

The wild claims rather than the simple truth that C02 WILL raise temperatures and the ice caps ARE absorbing a lot of the heat in their melting that wold REALLY increase temperature were they not there to soak up the warmth are really all that's needed. Of course one can add that the warm up has lead to a three foot rise in ocean level in the last half century or so as well. This is basic stuff, not under debate, and is more likely to sway more conservative voters than wild claims.

Models with a slew of questionable assumptions that yeild "the sky is falling" really don't do anything to help reasoned scientific debate of the matter. After all, the only way you have a model that really identifies causes is after the event! Wildly speculative models also turn off people who would probably be quite open to a straightforward and model free approach. It's common sense, after all: everybody can understand how ice cubes in a drink soak up a lot of heat, everyone can understand that a lot of ice is melting all at once, and everyone can understand what three feet of water means.

[Slavik44]

okay a few points,

Brokeback mountain was an incredible success, it had a production budget of 14 million dollars and grossed 83 million dollars domestically. Basically for every million dollars spent on the production of this movie it earned 6 million in return. Other movies that year such as Tom Cruise's War of the World's grossed 234 million domestically but on a production budget of 132 million dollars. In other words for every 1 million dollars spent on production two million dollars were grossed. Or take the Fantastic four 100 Million dollar budget and 154 million dollars grossed. Or perhaps kingdom of Heaven with a 130 million dollar budget it grossed a huge 47 million dollars. In fact look at the budget for any movie, very rarely will you find a movie that ever earns $6 (domestically) for every dollar spent on production.

Next point is that a number of movies that fit in the designation of having political, philisophical or Shock value tend to open on limited release. Limited Release is not done on the designation of movie theatres, it is done by decision of those who control the movie. In 2005 Broke back mountain started as a limited release grossing only 500K in its first weekend. Other movies like that include March of the penguins (77 million earned, opening weekend of 137K), Memoires of Geisha (57 million earned opend to 682K), Syriana (50 million earned opened to 374K).

Inconvenient Truth opened in only four theatres, I believe that is less then any of the other movies mentioned above, although I cannot confirm this. During that time it grossed 300k, which should put it in an a position to push past 50 million dollars domestically when all is said in done.

50 million dollars may not seem like a lot of money when compared to X-men Three. However X-Men Three had a production budget of over 200 million dollars. As well X-men three is a movie that is designed purely for your entertainment, it is not an hour plus long political campaign add. The Day After Tomoorrow is more of a global warming thriller type movie, and it did fairly respectible grossing 186 million domestically and 542 million world wide. As well the Harry potter series of movies is the third most financialy succesfull franchise of movies in the history of mankind, behind only James Bond and Star Wars, making it an absurdly high benchmark for comparison.

What I do find interesting is that every time someone on the left makes a movie that has political connotations the right loves to critisize its success, why don't you guys up and release a movie??? Oh thats right you did Celsius 41.11 it grossed a whoping $93,000 and it on the otherhand wasn't on limited release nobody wanted to show it and likewise nobody wanted to see it, Congradulations guys $93,000 give yourself a nice big pat on the back.

[America1]

okay a few points,

Brokeback mountain was an incredible success, it had a production budget of 14 million dollars and grossed 83 million dollars domestically. Basically for every million dollars spent on the production of this movie it earned 6 million in return. Other movies that year such as Tom Cruise's War of the World's grossed 234 million domestically but on a production budget of 132 million dollars. In other words for every 1 million dollars spent on production two million dollars were grossed. Or take the Fantastic four 100 Million dollar budget and 154 million dollars grossed. Or perhaps kingdom of Heaven with a 130 million dollar budget it grossed a huge 47 million dollars. In fact look at the budget for any movie, very rarely will you find a movie that ever earns $6 (domestically) for every dollar spent on production.

Next point is that a number of movies that fit in the designation of having political, philisophical or Shock value tend to open on limited release. Limited Release is not done on the designation of movie theatres, it is done by decision of those who control the movie. In 2005 Broke back mountain started as a limited release grossing only 500K in its first weekend. Other movies like that include March of the penguins (77 million earned, opening weekend of 137K), Memoires of Geisha (57 million earned opend to 682K), Syriana (50 million earned opened to 374K).

Inconvenient Truth opened in only four theatres, I believe that is less then any of the other movies mentioned above, although I cannot confirm this. During that time it grossed 300k, which should put it in an a position to push past 50 million dollars domestically when all is said in done.

50 million dollars may not seem like a lot of money when compared to X-men Three. However X-Men Three had a production budget of over 200 million dollars. As well X-men three is a movie that is designed purely for your entertainment, it is not an hour plus long political campaign add. The Day After Tomoorrow is more of a global warming thriller type movie, and it did fairly respectible grossing 186 million domestically and 542 million world wide. As well the Harry potter series of movies is the third most financialy succesfull franchise of movies in the history of mankind, behind only James Bond and Star Wars, making it an absurdly high benchmark for comparison.

What I do find interesting is that every time someone on the left makes a movie that has political connotations the right loves to critisize its success, why don't you guys up and release a movie??? Oh thats right you did Celsius 41.11 it grossed a whoping $93,000 and it on the otherhand wasn't on limited release nobody wanted to show it and likewise nobody wanted to see it, Congradulations guys $93,000 give yourself a nice big pat on the back.

The movie has been out for 3 weeks and has made less than $4mm and you think it will reach $50 mm domestically? I guess you're banking on a great finishing push?

[Slavik44]

The movie has been out for 3 weeks and has made less than $4mm and you think it will reach $50 mm domestically? I guess you're banking on a great finishing push?

Well I am not guranteeing it will get 50 million dollars, I am saying based on my observations and past trends this movie could very likely pull in 50 million dollars. It may not, it is meerley an educated guess. For an early indication this weekend will probabley be usefull when it is open in 420 theatres, if it can stay in the $10,000-12,000/theatre range then I believe it is a very good indication that it has the momentum to go the distance. I will admit it is to soon to gurantee 50 million, but it is also far to premature to label the movie as a flop, being that it is already the fith highest grosing political commentary ever made.

[Darth Buddha]

It probably did so well per theater because it was in so few and those most politically motivated just had to go. It's sort of like Scientologists buying up tickets to the dreadful "Battlefield Earth." It had a big impact on a few theaters in California, but not anywhere else.

The fact that it did so well per theater is still impressive even given that effect: unless of course there were political (rather than religious) cultists buying up tickets in the same fashion.

[America1]

The movie has been out for 3 weeks and has made less than $4mm and you think it will reach $50 mm domestically? I guess you're banking on a great finishing push?

Well I am not guranteeing it will get 50 million dollars, I am saying based on my observations and past trends this movie could very likely pull in 50 million dollars. It may not, it is meerley an educated guess. For an early indication this weekend will probabley be usefull when it is open in 420 theatres, if it can stay in the $10,000-12,000/theatre range then I believe it is a very good indication that it has the momentum to go the distance. I will admit it is to soon to gurantee 50 million, but it is also far to premature to label the movie as a flop, being that it is already the fith highest grosing political commentary ever made.

just to update; after 5 weeks, 'Inconceneint Truth' just under $6.5 mm.

[August1991]

just to update; after 5 weeks, 'Inconceneint Truth' just under $6.5 mm.

I notice quickly that it is playing in 2 cinemas in Montreal, 1 in Calgary, 6 in Vancouver and 9 in Toronto. This is hardly what is called wide release, and no one is claiming the movie is a block-buster.

America1, I'm not certain where you're going with this. Is it some desire to compete? Some people apparently see cinema data the same way they view sports matches or politics. It's my team vs. their team. IMDb now refuses to let posters rate certain movies because too many boys vote against girl movies, and so on.

Or, are you assuming this financial data of Gore's movie somehow indicates popular opinion about global warming? Opinion polls woild be a better way to gauge that. In any case, I'm not certain whether scientific issues should be decided by popular vote.

[America1]

just to update; after 5 weeks, 'Inconceneint Truth' just under $6.5 mm.

I notice quickly that it is playing in 2 cinemas in Montreal, 1 in Calgary, 6 in Vancouver and 9 in Toronto. This is hardly what is called wide release, and no one is claiming the movie is a block-buster.

America1, I'm not certain where you're going with this. Is it some desire to compete? Some people apparently see cinema data the same way they view sports matches or politics. It's my team vs. their team. IMDb now refuses to let posters rate certain movies because too many boys vote against girl movies, and so on.

Or, are you assuming this financial data of Gore's movie somehow indicates popular opinion about global warming? Opinion polls woild be a better way to gauge that. In any case, I'm not certain whether scientific issues should be decided by popular vote.

yes, i think it shows that people see this movie as nothing but pure propaganda (which it is) and that it make crazy leaps with its analysis/predictions. Yet, the Looney libs think its a movie of facts and a spear head for their cause.

On top of that, I like rubbing it in liberals faces when their insane hero has another failed venture.

[Black Dog]

yes, i think it shows that people see this movie as nothing but pure propaganda (which it is) and that it make crazy leaps with its analysis/predictions. Yet, the Looney libs think its a movie of facts and a spear head for their cause.

On top of that, I like rubbing it in liberals faces when their insane hero has another failed venture.

Except, er, it hasn't failed. It's done very well, all things (size of release, budget) considered. BTW: have you seen it?

[LonJowett]

On top of that, I like rubbing it in liberals faces when their insane hero has another failed venture.

But Gore isn't exactly a Liberal. He ran with Lieberman, for crissakes, and his wife is a bloody social conservative. Economically he's to the right of Clinton, who's economic policies are more fiscally conservative than Bush--considering they balanced the budget and still had money left over for war.

[Oddman]

Why is it that righties only seem to know how to trash something like Gore's movie, while never really supplying a logical counter-argument stating something scientific in regards to how we are not warming the planet?

And isn't it better to sound the alarm about something in order to get the public to take notice? If you think "no", all you have to do is remember the "Mushroom Cloud" comment made by Condi, Rummy and Bush. Methinks that was more of an alarmist startegy (lies) than this movie is.

[America1]

yes, i think it shows that people see this movie as nothing but pure propaganda (which it is) and that it make crazy leaps with its analysis/predictions. Yet, the Looney libs think its a movie of facts and a spear head for their cause.

On top of that, I like rubbing it in liberals faces when their insane hero has another failed venture.

Except, er, it hasn't failed. It's done very well, all things (size of release, budget) considered. BTW: have you seen it?

er, um, $6.5 mm is terrible!

[Slavik44]

yes, i think it shows that people see this movie as nothing but pure propaganda (which it is) and that it make crazy leaps with its analysis/predictions. Yet, the Looney libs think its a movie of facts and a spear head for their cause.

On top of that, I like rubbing it in liberals faces when their insane hero has another failed venture.

Except, er, it hasn't failed. It's done very well, all things (size of release, budget) considered. BTW: have you seen it?

er, um, $6.5 mm is terrible!

6.5 million is not an incredible success like past movies we have seen released in previous years, but it was 12th out of over 120 movies in theatres this weekend. At 6.5 million it is the fourth highest grossing political documentary/commentary ever made most likely to become the third within a few days, third being 6.7 million. It is also the 11th highest grossing documentary ever produced. So it is tough to call it a disaster or terrible.

All I can say is please evaluate a movie based on its peers, evaluate a Political commentary in comparison to other political commentaries, and when you do you realise that as far as political commentaries go this movie has done fairly well sitting as the fourth highest grossing, most likely soon to be third. thats not to shaby.

[Michael Hardner]

Auguste:

IMDb claims Brokeback Mountain had a budget of $14 million. The $60 million for publicity is nonsense or a number pulled out of thin air forpublicity purposes.

Just a note here - I believe that publicity isn't usually counted in the film's "budget". The budget usually includes the costs to make the film - production, and post production costs - only.

[sharkman]

At any rate, here on July the 2nd, about 5 weeks in, Truth has done a paltry $12.3 million. Doesn't look like it's going to do anything but dash hopes.

Hopefully, Hollywood will quit getting on their soap box and get back to entertainment, or as Laura Ingraham says,"Shut up and act!".

[gerryhatrick]

At any rate, here on July the 2nd, about 5 weeks in, Truth has done a paltry $12.3 million. Doesn't look like it's going to do anything but dash hopes.

Hopefully, Hollywood will quit getting on their soap box and get back to entertainment, or as Laura Ingraham says,"Shut up and act!".

Hollywood? This is a Hollywood soapbox? What anti-American nonsense.

An Inconvenient Truth is the 5th highest grossing documentary ever, and it's still on limitted release.

Did you laugh at it in it's first week for only being on two theaters? probably. You were no doubt out there saying "oh look, it's only in two theaters! What a flop!"

And no doubt the same thing the next week when it was only in 100. Or the next week when it was in less than 200. Or the next week....and so on.

It's still in limitted release. I know you and the rest of the global warming denial (PLEASE don't take away my SUV! snif) club want to keep the truth down, but it ain't happening.

In the end, the truth comes out.

[sharkman]

No Gerry, I didn't laugh at it being in only 2 or 5 or whatever theatres, I laughed because Gore was in it, that washed up politician who never saw a tree he didn't want to hug. Even though it's the fifth highest grossing "documentary", $12 million is still only $12 million.

I have to admit it was a good selling job by Gore and no doubt backed by clubs such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, spreading their gospel, but at the end of the day it doesn't look like this movie got any traction with the mainstream. And when you're selling junk science, the truth will indeed eventually come out.