Anti-Obama Documentary Expanding to 1,800 Theaters After Surging to Box Office No. 2

Religion Today | Updated: Aug 29, 2012

Anti-Obama Documentary Expanding to 1,800 Theaters After Surging to Box Office No. 2

2016: Obama's America, the conservative documentary that surged to No 2. at the box office Monday with its challenge to the president's worldview, will expand from the 1,091 theaters it played in over the weekend to about 1,800 theaters on Friday, Yahoo! News reports. The film, based on Dinesh D'Souza's book The Roots of Obama's Rage, has now grossed $10.5 million to become the No. 6 political documentary of all time and the top conservative film. It's also the top documentary of 2012, excluding nature films. "It's extremely rare for a documentary to break into the top 10, but August can be a land of opportunity for smaller films," said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. Conservatives have likely accounted for most of the documentary's audience so far, D'Souza said, but the attention it is now receiving could prompt left-leaning viewers to check it out. "What's happening is that people are really hungry for new information about Obama," he said. "There really is this sense that he remains an elusive figure. Then there's a second sense that the American dream is in the balance, the American dream is at stake, and that gives people a sense of anxiety about where the country is going." D'Souza said Obama's America would probably remain in theaters until early October, followed by a DVD release in the homestretch leading up to the Nov. 6 election.



Anti-Obama Documentary Expanding to 1,800 Theaters After Surging to Box Office No. 2