Box office: Sarah Palin documentary not showing long-term staying power

» Not showing staying power: While the Sarah Palin documentary didn’t suffer the steepest dip this weekend (that honor goes to the final “Harry Potter” film, which didn’t even score two consecutive weeks at the top of the box office), it didn’t show the growth that many slow-rollout films often do. For a small release like “The Undefeated,” though (which actually expanded its theater count slightly, but has only made roughly $100,000 during its two-week run), that’s not very good for its long-term prospects — nor was its $1,714 per-screen count. You know what would be? If Sarah Palin announces a presidential run. (h/t ohheybill)

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

$169M the amount Harry Potter’s final film made — the biggest single weekend gross ever, BTW, but one that was very front-loaded
$75k the amount Palin’s “The Undefeated” made this weekend in 10 theaters (roughly — see, the distributor didn’t report exact estimates)
.04% share of Palin’s box-office take to Harry Potter’s take, which is like comparing an ant to an elephant, but still pretty fun source

» A huge amount of spin here: ARC Entertainment threw out a press release today claiming that “The Undefeated” actually did quite well amid adversity. “We expect word-of-mouth to keep ticket sales strong and we will definitely expand the film to a wider national audience,” said Trevor Drinkwater, the distributor’s CEO. “With merely three weeks of preparation and a virtually non-existent traditional advertising spend, the film did exceptionally well.” The distributor also noted that the film did the kind of business a film would normally require millions in advertising for. Which, let’s put it simply, isn’t true. Two fairly low-budget films this weekend — Errol Morris’ “Tabloid” and the poorly-reviewed “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” — still managed to have larger grosses than Palin’s film despite the fact that all three films showed in less than 30 theaters. And on top of that, the movie has gotten plenty of traditional media coverage in part due to its star. A dud is a dud. Sorry.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

ten number of theaters the Sarah Palin documentary, “The Undefeated,” opened in this weekend — mostly conservative test markets
three people were in a recent Orange County showing — including a fairly lonely reviewer for The Atlantic; the other two left after 20 minutes source

» A pretty bad test weekend: While some estimate that Palin’s film could make as much as $4 million over its entire run — good for a rally-the-troops conservative film — the weekend that they chose to test it is one where most filmgoers of all political persuasions are preoccupied with Harry Potter. But one thing to keep in mind — if she decides to run, the film could do a lot better. For what it’s worth, the other two girls in the theater with Atlantic editor Conor Friedersdorf probably thought “The Undefeated” was an action movie, so maybe she’ll get some business from confused moviegoers.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jul 2011 21:49