Your Fair And Balanced News

[filkertom]

This is an absolutely perfect example of the press distorting the truth for political purposes. Faux News points out that X-Men 3 and The DaVinci Code made stupid amounts of money over the weekend, while Al Gore's environmental film An Inconvenient Truth earned less than a half-million. Thus implying, "Jeez, nobody wants to see that crackpot Gore and his tree-hugging. He's really unpopular, y'know?"

They don't mention that An Inconvenient Truth played in four theaters.

Four.

X3 and Da Vinci each played in about 3,700.

Gore's movie earned three times per screen what X3 did, and eight times DaVinci.

Let's rephrase that: An environmental documentary earned between three and eight times per screen what the big summer action blockbusters did.

But that Gore, he's crazy and unpopular.

Comments

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

They also leave out the whole it's-a-documentary aspect. You can certainly get more people to go to movies where things blow up than you can to movies that are trying to get a point across sans explosions.

I have to believe that most people who do not actually depend on Fox News for their information would understand this all without it being explained to them. I have to believe that because if I didn't, I'd never stop crying.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

You know what's going to be REALLY funny?

Fox is blathering about how Al Gore's DOCUMENTARY is "a bunch of paranoid rambling and irrational scare-mongering".

But you just watch, when "The Omen", a FANTASY MOVIE comes out, there's going to be MAJOR COVERAGE and SERIOUS DISCUSSION about how "it inspires one to think about the possibility of an oncoming armageddon".

Betcha dollars to donuts!

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

That was an excellent point you made, Tom. In fact, I'm sending it to all of my politically active friends (should I use "From the brilliant mind of the handsome and talanted Tom Smith" or "Yet another shrewd observation from this century's Tom Lehrer"?)

As far as I'm concerned, anyone who gets their info from Fox is a lost cause. They're too stupid to educate and too stubborn to admit they wasted all that time watching propaganda.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

You do know that Tom Lehrer is still alive, right?

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

OT, but that is a lovely icon. Is it based on a story somewhere?

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

But he's not recording, same thing, we're still lacking his wit and irreverence.

The Godlike Tom Smith -- Okay, the god is Bacchus, but still....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, just refer to me as "a combination of Sartre, Sondheim, and Schweitzer, not merely in talent and philosophy but total body mass". Or, somewhat more seriously, "politically-minded musical comedian Tom Smith". More to the point, mention Media Matters. All I did was put up the link. :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

It's exactly like the bullshit about The DaVinci Code shaking the faith: If your faith is threatened by a potboiler summer thriller, maybe it wasn't all that strong in the first place. Truth is, there are a lot of religious people in this country, and the ones who are the most ludicr- err, fervently devout are the ones who get air time.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Only four? Apparently that movie's playing here, in Nova Scotia, or at least is about to.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

I would feel much more sympathetic if the news media, up until very recently, had not been overwhelmingly dominated by one POV.

"'As long as one paying rascal is here, we shall not be sure of success,' said the leader of the claque."

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Over in a comment thread on Making Light, Jim Macdonald makes the point about media bias this way:

Hillary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani ran a footrace around Central Park. Rudi came in a very respectable second, while Hillary struggled to cross the finish line next to last.

Must see if I can get out to see it this week. (And I'll try to keep the Powerpoint snark -- given that it's what I do for a living -- to a minimum. :-)

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I don't know, actually; I guess it might be. I snagged it here (http://community.livejournal.com/liberal_icons/170135.html). =)

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I was flabbergasted by the number of articles I read about The DaVinci Code that started out with a priest or minister having someone from their congregation bringing them the book and asking, "Is this true?"

Um, did you by it in the FICTION SECTION?!

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Well, he certainly seems to be unpopular with the owners of movie theatres. Wonder why that could be?

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of what happened with the MST3K movie....

It only opened in a few theaters at a time, and only made just over $2 Million in theaters, so Gramercy called it a bomb...

...despite the fact that for its first few weeks, it was highest-grossing per screen than any other film playing at the time.


(Gramercy put all their ad funding toward "Barb Wire", which was a true bomb)

[ratbastrd.livejournal.com]

Living in NYC, I had the privilege of seeing it this past weekend. Aside from the simple fact of it being a truly powerful and chilling (so to speak) documentary, it can't be denied that it sold out every single showing. I saw some report somewhere (which may very well be apocryphal, especially since I think I saw it on Fark) that it was the 11th top grossing movie of the weekend. Remarkable, all things considered.

Oh, and it is opening at more and more theaters throughout the course of the summer, though I do think it was absolutely idiotic that it opened at so few the first weekend. See here (http://www.climatecrisis.net/findatheater/).

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Bwahaha. Not only did I see MST3K: The Movie, not only did I buy it in both VHS and DVD, but it's the only movie poster I have on my wall. Barb Wire... not so much. Not anything, in fact.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well, goodness knows y'can't take a chance on the movie-going public possibly wanting to see something that didn't involve half-naked exploding porpoises.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

i wish I had been one of the lucky ones to get the DVD :(

[ratbastrd.livejournal.com]

'tis unamerican, strewth.

Though the documentary did show a few whales that were conspiuously unclothed, and i recall that there was a mushroom cloud or two at one point. Is that close enough?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yow. I didn't realize it was out of print. There's a copy at eBay, currently going for $71, and copies from used dealers through Amazon start at $125.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

I know.....out of my price range :(

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

It was treated like an art film, which opens only in NY and LA (I should note that I live in NY, too, so grok this from experience) and then goes to broader distribution later, especially if it does well.

In this case, not an optimal strategy, but I ain't no studio mogul. But to allow the MSM to call it a bomb is just stupid.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

We are talking Fox.

Re: The Godlike Tom Smith -- Okay, the god is Bacchus, but still....

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I couldn't think of enough words to describe either your awesomnes or girth (of talent ;-) so I just linked your name to your free stuff page.

[codevixen.livejournal.com]

Sooo assuming four theatres, three days each, and tickets are about $9, that's just shy of 5000 people per day in each theatre. I would call that a success!

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Oh Ghods.. your icon! I was "Professor" in every unit I served in!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Feel free to take it and use it. You've earned it more than I (I earned it in school and at work, but it should be used by someone who was in the service).

Truth to X3 is an apples to oranges comparison

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's fair to compare the box office receipts of a heavily-advertised and teen-skewing summer tentpole flick to those of a documentary. They are just not aimed to the same audiences so whatever numbers bandied about don't give a good indication which movie really has better "drawing power", and you can wind up looking guilty of the same twisting of numbers to make your point.

For instance, one could try to make the case that since it only opened in 4 theaters, it concentrated the number of people that wanted to see it in specific locations, inflating the per-theater average.

To get around that argument, I think a more valid comparison might be between Truth and Michael Moore's "Roger & Me". Both are political documentaries that had some buzz prior to opening, and both opened in 4 theaters. Roger & Me opened to $80,253 the last weekend of '89 which would be in the neighborhood of $130,000 in today's prices. Truth over doubled that.

So what if your buds on the right whip out the ol' "But Roger only appeals to left-wing liberals!!" argument? Fine. How 'bout March of the Penguins which also had some buzz and opened in 4 theaters it's initial weekend just 11 months ago (so any inflation adjustments that might be made are minimal at worst) - *and* had broad-based appeal across all demographics. It only grossed $137,492 its opening weekend - again less than half of Truth.

Yes, any way you slice it the numbers are QUITE impressive and do make a statement, but if we want to be fair about it also, we need to compare apples to apples :)

The thing we're going to need to look at is not just opening weekend, but its staying power over the coming weeks, as well as how the studio handles the future distribution - do they roll it out fairly quickly to a wide release like Penguins? Do they build slowly like My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Or do they keep it in limited release like Murderball? I think this weekend will give us a better indication of where Truth is headed.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I got my Good News Bible in the fiction section.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I should've changed my icon when I commented. Oops.

Re: Truth to X3 is an apples to oranges comparison

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. All I'm sayin' is that Faux would never make allowances for anything like that. All that matters to them is their message -- in this case, That Wacky (and Whacko) Al Gore.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

It played in two theaters here in Columbus. I went to see it at both of 'em. I did my part, Gramercy notwithstanding!

What I can't understand is why they refuse to re-issue The Movie. I'd buy a Special Edition, with the cut scenes (the storm cellar sequence is priceless, and the alternate ending is great), maybe a commentary track (although that might be asking for trouble).

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Well, let's see. Listening to All Things Considered this afternoon, they pointed out that 'An Inconvenient Truth' has set a new record for per-screen take on Memorial Day weekend--defeating 'The Shining'.

As Jon Lovitz put it on Letterman, "FOX! Now spelled with a 'U'!"

[infobits.livejournal.com]

"Lies, damn lies, and statistics" - there are always ways to select the statistic that gives you the conclusion you want. *sigh* I'm glad you provided the adjusted values.

Its amazing to me how they fail to account for the number of theaters when they report those numbers. I work with rates (I'm an epidemiologist) all the time and we always adjust the number of events (deaths, births, illness) by the number of people who could have experienced it. Sometimes, we adjust by the time period too - the number of illnesses in a period can be part fo the definition of an outbreak, or an epidemic.

BJ