Michael
Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" took in a whopping .8 million
in its first three days, becoming the first documentary ever to
debut as Hollywood's top weekend film.
If Sunday's estimates hold when final numbers are released Monday,
"Fahrenheit 9/11" would set a record in a single weekend
as the top-grossing
documentary ever outside of concert films and movies made for
huge-screen IMAX
theaters.
Adding the film's haul
at two New York City theaters where it opened two days earlier
than the rest of the country, boosted "Fahrenheit 9/11"
to .96 million.
"Bowling for Columbine," Moore's 2002 Academy Award-winning
documentary, previously held the documentary record with .6
million.
"Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore's assault on US President
Bush's actions after the 2001 terrorist attacks, won the top honor
at last month's Cannes Film Festival and has attracted attention
from both sides in the US presidential campaign.
The movie has been embraced by left-wing groups, which mobilized
members to see it during the opening weekend. Conservative groups
sought to discourage theaters from showing it and asked the Federal
Election Commission to examine its ads for potential violations
of campaign-finance law regulating when commercials may feature
a presidential candidate.
"I want to thank all the right-wing organizations out there
who tried to stop the film, either from their harassment campaign
that didn't work on the theater owners, or going to the
FEC
to get our ads removed from television, to all the things that
have been said on television," Moore said. "It's only
encouraged more people to go and see it."
"Fahrenheit 9/11" opened in 868 theaters, a wide release
for a documentary but narrow compared to big Hollywood flicks.
Distributors Lions Gate and IFC Films plan to put "Fahrenheit
9/11" into a couple of hundred more theaters this Wednesday,
when competition heats up with the release of "Spider-Man
2," summer's most-anticipated movie.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-30 01:00