'Undefeated' Deflated (flop)

[pissant]

"Over the weekend, The Undefeated charged into six-digit territory, posting a smaller drop than Harry Potter and a higher per-theater average than Larry Crowne and Mr. Popper's Penguins! Not only that, it beat its weekend estimate, and it's already nearing the Top 50 of political documentaries!"

That's the kind of spin one might have expected from political boosters about Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated's second-weekend nosedive. After all, the box office reality didn't stop them from proclaiming an unremarkable opening to be remarkable last week.

Instead, they ignored the box office defeat altogether and began pushing a press release about The Undefeated's imminent arrival on pay-per-view/video-on-demand and DVD. That press release, by the way, was issued after the movie's second weekend results came in.

Here's the reality: The Undefeated debuted to $65,132 at ten locations over the July 15-17 weekend. This past weekend, its release grew to 14 locations, but business plummeted 62 percent to $24,664, averaging $1,762 per site. That put its total at just $101,382 in ten days, which means it's sold an estimated 13,000 tickets. But "demand across the country remains high," according to that press release. (Undefeated is not to be confused with Sarah's Key, a foreign language movie that opened to $115,708 at five locations this past weekend.)

Normally, a movie with such poor box office would not receive story coverage on Box Office Mojo, but the furor over The Undefeated calls for an injection of truth.

Even before The Undefeated bottomed out in its second weekend, the movie was a bust in its first weekend, but its boosters latched onto two stats: per-theater average and ranking among political documentaries. The classic tactics of movie spin include bragging about per-theater average and declaring a high ranking in a niche category. The funny thing is that Undefeated's opening didn't rate highly on either front, making the spin extra-egregious.

Within the minor political documentary sub-genre, The Undefeated's $6,532 opening weekend per-theater average ranked 33rd out of the 91 limited openings tracked over the past 30 years, normalized for ticket price inflation. Among all documentaries, it was in the middle of the pack. Hardly worthy of hyperbole. Even if it had little to no advertising, Undefeated had far more media coverage than most other political documentaries and independent releases could ever dream of. The awareness was there.


http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3215&p=.htm

I'd rather watch paint peeling.  Apparently, so would most everyone else.

[formerlurker]

I don't know why they put it out in the theater, but it will do well on pay-for-view I am sure.   

[Duke Nukum]

I had a slim chance to see it in Waukesha Saturday but I thought it might be in Madison this weekend. And it isn't.

[thundley4]

Did anyone think a political documentary would do well in theaters?

[delilahmused]

Did anyone think a political documentary would do well in theaters?

I was surprised it did as well as it did and I say this as someone who would love to call Madam President. She does garner a lot of attention though. I doubt anyone else could generate that kind of interest.

Cindie

[Duke Nukum]

Did anyone think a political documentary would do well in theaters?

I prefer to watch these things on Netflix Streaming but if it came to the Belly of the Beast, Madison WI, I would be first in line to buy a ticket.

[seabelle]

Really, a review from Box Office MoJo that they "had to write".  LOL.   It's a lefty libtard Hollywood site.  Funny they should waste so much ink on such a dismal little movie, eh?  What they fail to mention, The Undefeated made money, it's how you gage success of a film, not that Captain America blew them out of the water ! Heh. 

Here's to balance them out:

http://conservatives4palin.com/2011/07/washington-times-the-undefeated-scores-success-in-unexpected-liberal-places.html