The conservative documentary “2016: Obama’s America” stole the show from Sly Stallone’s bad-ass geezers and three opening films at the weekend box office, on its way to an estimated $6.2 million total for the three days.
The $5,940 per-screen average posted by "2016: Obama's America" was easily the best among films playing widely. "Expendables 2" stayed on top in its second week with $13.2 million averaging $3,950 from 3,355 theaters.
The documentary purports to tell what things will be like should the president be re-elected. Distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures expanded it into 1,091 theaters (from 169 last week) just in time to cash in on the buzz surrounding the Republican National Convention.
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"2016: Obama's America" is based on conservative author Dinesh D'Souza's book, "The Roots of Obama's Rage." D'Souza co-directed with John Sullivan. Produced for a reported $2.1 million, it has made $9.3 million since its release seven weeks ago, and has surpassed 'Bully" as the year's top-earning documentary.
Director Sullivan has appeared on Fox News and the Discovery Channel to promote the film and conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have lauded it. Beck called it an election-season bomb, similar to Michael Moore's 2004 film "Farenheit 9/11," which was highly critical of President George W. Bush.
That film is the highest-grossing political documentary of all time, and took in $119 million domestically and $222 million at the worldwide box office.
"Expendables 2" raised its overall domestic to $52.3 million, according to distributor Lionsgate. That's behind 2010's original "Expendables," which had take in $65 million at a comparable stage in its release.
It was a slow weekend overall. Universal's “Bourne Legacy’ was second with $9.2 million and raised its overall gross to $85.5 milli, but the weekend’s new films fizzled.
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Sony’s bicycle chase movie “Premium Rush” took in $6.3 million from 2,255 locations, a $2,794 per-screen average. The audience was 55 percent male and 67 percent was 25 and older. The film received a “B” CinemaScore.
“Hit and Run,” from Open Road, mustered a meager $4.5 million from 2,870 locations.
The weekend's other opener, Warner Bros.’ supernatural thriller “Apparation,” brought in $2.9 million from 810 theaters.
"ParaNorman," the stop-action animated family film from Focus Features, was No. 3 with $8.5 million in its second week.
Warner Bros.' political comedy 'The Campaign" was fourth in its third week with $7.4 million.
In its sixth week, "Dark Knight Rises" added $7.1 million to raise its overall domestic haul to $422 million. The third film in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy has taken in $910 million worldwide for Warner Bros.
Disney's "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" brought in $7.1 million in its second week.
"Hope Springs" continued to hold strongly and took in $6 million.That's just a 34 percent drop from last week and raises its overall box office to $45 million.