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June 29, 2004
A Red State Movie?
Like a lot of other folks, I was thrilled to see Fahrenheit 9/11 win the box-office battles by grossing $23.9 million in its opening weekend (note, that's $2.1 million more than the $21.8 million estimate that most news outlets wound up reporting). But I was especially intrigued by Michael Moore's Monday morning comment that F9/11 was "a red state movie". This NYTimes article quoted Moore making several references to North Carolina:
"We sold out in Fayetteville, home of Fort Bragg. We sold out in Army-base towns. We set house records in some of these places. We set single-day records in a number of theaters. We got standing ovations in Greensboro, N.C. The biggest news to me this morning is this is a red-state movie. Republican states are embracing the movie, and it's sold out in Republican strongholds all over the country."
Sure, part of this is energizing hype and spin that leaves out the details of exactly which red-state residents are embracing the movie, but I'm glad Moore's framing the success in a way that tries to break the film out of the lefty anti-Bush ghetto in which most commentators placed it before the weekend. Still, I was really curious about exactly which NC cities and theaters F9/11 had played in and/or would be playing in. Because while selling out opening night showings in the massive 1000+ seat Carolina Theatre is really impressive, Durham is an extremely blue city. As are Chapel Hill & Carrboro, from which many of us spilled over on that rainy night. Fayetteville, on the other hand....
According to this list, there will be 29 North Carolina theaters showing F9/11 by this Friday. That's over double the 13 that are already showing it. Turns out that the sold-out Fayetteville theater was the Cameo Art House Theater in downtown Fayetteville. Applause to the Cameo for showing the movie in the first place, but I'm excited by the fact that the Fayetteville Carmike 12 will start showing the movie on Friday, as will several other large Carmike theaters in Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, Jacksonville(!), Washington, Morrisville, and Durham (second/first viewing at the Wynnsong anyone?). Not to mention the non-Carmike theaters in Sanford, Hickory, Southern Pines, etc.
While it remains to be seen exactly what effect the movie will have on the November election, I'm really enjoying reading speculations about the potential impact. And yes, NC is a red state historically, but we're getting somewhat purple these days, at least according to this recent statewide poll. Put John Edwards on the ticket and factor in things like heavy turnout and maybe the pundits start to get a little color-blind?
PS: I realize that I didn't say anything about the content of F9/11 here, but plenty of other folks have written insightful commentary....besides, I didn't want to give away any spoilers. You know, in case someone out there doesn't know whether we invaded Iraq or not...
Posted by Tim at June 29, 2004 09:53 PM
Comments
harvey weinstein announced that, although the movie's in 800 theaters nationwide at this point, it will go into 2000 theaters within the next few weeks. that squares with the fact that i saw a preview for it at ye olde southpointe mall theatres, but southpoint's not yet on the list of nc venues. you'd think that since it's already being screened in lots of smaller arthouse venues, most of the 1200 additional theaters will be big guys like carmike.
Posted by: greta at June 30, 2004 12:55 PM
I'm up for a Wynnsong (second) viewing. The Durham Carolina third balcony with a bar in front made it tough to read most of the subtitles.
I'm interested to see what kind of crowds the Carmike theaters and the like garner. My brother is currently down in the Southern Pines/Pinehurst area, which is made up the Nascar crowd and old retired money, and F911 opens in the local cineplex this friday. To me, this represents the real 'red state' NC. If the crowds are large in a community like Pinehurst, this movie should continue to do very well.
Posted by: Paul at June 30, 2004 12:57 PM
One of the tings I think is interesting is that here in the SF Bay Area, we're seeing VERY racially diverse audiences for something so typically oriented to a middle-class white liberal market. Reports from friends who have seen it outside the white enclaves indicate large (even predominantly) black audiences and I personally overheard a couple ~18 year old african-american women on the BART talking about when they were going to go see it and which of their friends were able to come on what nights.
So my thought is that the south can draw some real numbers for Moore (and maybe for Kerry) if the effort to mobilize a black audience is picked up by community leaders and speakers. Leads me to ask - is any of the public radio stations in the Triangle running Tavis Smiley? And has anyone heard Tavis speak about the film?
Moore did a good job of putting african-americans into the film. If the word gets out, I would expect some significant response.
Posted by: Bob Boster at July 6, 2004 12:56 PM
I'm not that familiar with Tavis Smiley but I looked on his NPR page and he's on both the Shaw and NC Central radio stations....as well as 8 other NC stations. But not WUNC. But I hope you're right about mobilizing votes in the South.
Posted by: Tim at July 8, 2004 11:31 AM
Unfortunately you got sold a bill of goods, again.
Posted by: HH at July 14, 2004 02:57 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/13/movies/13BOXO.html
Word of advice: Don't trust the words (or the edited video or the contextless quoting) of Michael Moore.
Posted by: HH at July 14, 2004 02:58 AM