Gores Film, Lionized by Media, A Pussycat at Box Office

June 13th, 2006 2:00 PM


Gores Film, Lionized by Media, A Pussycat at Box Office
Documentarys lackluster performance worse than Gigli, A Prairie Home Companion

By Ken Shepherd
Business & Media Institute
June 13, 2006

     Perhaps not since Gigli has a movie so highly anticipated by the media done so little at the box office.

     Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth has been and still is being strongly promoted in the media, but as with the ill-fated Lopez-Affleck outing, the moviegoers arent busting down theater doors to see it.

     Despite lengthy interviews on The Early Show and Today or a coveted interview slot on late night talk shows like The Tonight Show, Gores apocalyptic view of global warming is not burning up the box office. Its a sleeper that refuses to be roused, but the media keep on trying. Gore is slated to be interviewed by Larry King tonight on CNN. Thats the latest media push to promote climate change, a trend going back 110 years according to a Special Report called Fire and Ice.

     Gores film recently hit its widest release on the June 9-11 weekend and is showing in 122 theaters nationwide. So far, despite a strong per-theater earning average, its not yet made $4 million in its three weeks on the silver screen. The aforementioned Gigli only lasted in theaters for three weeks, but grossed more than Gores movie has to date, making $6 million.

     Inconveniently enough, Gores tour de force isnt just losing out to blockbusters like X-Men 3 and Cars, which are raking in money at thousands of theaters nationwide. Hes not even doing well with the NPR set either.

     The dry-witted and un-hyped Robert Altman-Garrison Keillor film A Prairie Home Companion, made more than $4.5 million in its opening weekend of June 9-11. The film is a theatrical spin-off of Keillors public radio program, and Keillors columns leave no mistake about his leftward political leanings.

     The Business & Media Institute has reported on the medias push to market Gores new image, from Time hyping his Current TV in August 2005 to the medias push this May and June to promote his documentary.