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[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I couldn't decide if this was an FB or a PB post, but I'll default it here.

I was listening to Marketplace this morning driving to work, and they did a piece on some conservative group approaching theater owners to try to persuade them not to show the movie. Apparently this is the same group that got the Reagan mini-series pulled.

Anyhow, the media expert that they were talking to said that the group will have little or no effect because the movie is not only expected to do well as far as documentaries go, but it's expected to be a summer blockbuster, and may even break the $100M mark. Theater owners want a piece of the pie, and Lion's Gate is overjoyed. One hopes that the conservative group appreicates and approves of the greed factor.

I had no idea that the movie was expected to do that well. I had sort of assumed that it'd end up in one of the independent chains like Landmark or Angelika, and the majority of the American population wasn't going to really have access to it, much less choose to see it over, say Spiderman 2.

The advance reviews have been fairly positive, and a friend of mine* who went to a screening back in April said that it's very different from the first two movies. The most conspicuous change is that Moore isn't in it as much. He narrates and he pops in a few times, but he's not leading as much as he did in his previous films. She said it's a much darker, more serious approach.

I wonder, then, if a movie like this will have an impact on the election. Clearly, it's anti-Bush, and Moore pushed for an early release so as many people as possible could see it before the election. If it is effective, what does that do to change politics, if anything? Are we going to have a slew of documentaries come out in every election cycle?

And if it's really a $100M movie, did Disney screw itself by not releasing it?


*liberal college student

The impressionable college student bloc isn't enough to carry Kerry. I don't see this movie changing too many minds, and those it motivates to vote are people Bush never had a chance with anyway. I love Moore's stuff, but I view it as salacious pseudo-fiction. I wouldn't take a thimble full of his statistics or "facts" to the bank.