The first bit of bunk is to call this tripe a "documentary" when in fact it is more in line with a "mocumentary" in which case...does anyone know how much "This is SpinalTap" made?

"Primero"

It did set the record for opening weekend for a crockumentary.
That's something anyway.

Michael who?

The article states that Fahrenheit 9/11 "...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".

What are they comparing the film to then other than Moore's other film Bowling for Columbine?
I guess Gibson's Passion doesn't qulaify as a documentary then even under the same loose defintions that Moore's films do?

I'd like to see what the other 9 films are that are on the top 10 list which Fahrenheit is #1 of. There's an idea for a top 10 list ;)

See, if there was a real movie in theaters this weekend, F911 wouldn't have made squat.
Dodgeball? White Girls?
If this had gone up against Spiderman 2 or Aliens v. Predator, Mikey'd be cring "CENSORSHIP!" at the top of his lungs.

I find the fact that this piece of tripe actually made any money disgraceful. Michael (the) Moor should look in some sort of high risk weight reduction surgery.

"R" rated Fraud-in-Heat911 grossed $21 million from 3 million leftist saps desperate to validate their self delusion by placing 'Faith' in Mhore.

"The Passion" grossed 6 times that much from people of Faith.

Is it any suprise the NewsMedia agenda-mongers fawn over Mhore calling the fraud a 'documentary' even as they panned "The Passion"?

ANSWER!:
"--big ass check to check?"

I bet Red Dawn sold more tickets opening weekend. And that was closer to a documentary than Moore’s crappy-McCrappy-crap. Keep something else in mind; The prices for a movie ticket have like tripled in the last couple of years. So a better way to gauge how many people went to see it would be to count the number of tickets sold, not the amount of money it made. And here’s an extra benefit to knowing how many people bought tickets to Moore’s mocumentary……

Number of People who paid $$$ to see Fahrenheit 9/11, is greater than or equal to the number of people with tiny minds, are easy to control, and voted for Gore.

Maybe he can afford some new clean clothes and a razor now.

Was listening to Neil Boortz on the web and the subject of Mikey's claims to the New York Times (all the news that fit to replace two-ply) that ForeignHype911 sold out in Fayetteville...the implication that even a place that had a large number of soldiers and dependents had people lined up around the block for the schlock.

A caller reported that there was actually only one theater in Fayetteville that ran the film and that it only has less than 200 seats.

Once again, Mikey has lied by ommission. I'd call him a fat lying dog turd but I don't want to do a disservice to dog turds.

jonag--
Maybe, but i see him spending most of the earnings on big macs... and small children

Red Dawn was an awesome movie!

I just saw "Bowling for Columbine" last night, and I will never get those two hours of my life back... Life is too short to waste on Michal Moore, but for those of you who have seen "Bowling", or read any of his books you should check out http://www.mooreexposed.com/ to help debunk any crazy hippies who take him seriously. There are a few other good sites out there too, a google search should bring them up.

MattC

I'm actually going to watch this crap laden, crap derived piece of crap made by that king of all things crap, Crapmaster Rabidawg Adolphius PoopiMoore.

I figure it's my duty if I'm going to spend so much time this election cycle debunking it.

It'll be the perfect occasion for the debut of my Nuke the Moon Tshirt.

Just make sure you buy a ticket to another movie and sneak into his-- please, think of the children

krakatoa,

looking forward to the debunking.

This Is Spinal Tap Grossed $30,835 in its first three days. In 1984 Money.

Great idea amyC!

Ben,

3 dollars and fifty cents of that 30K was mine.

I'm going to go turn my amp up to eleven now.

Damn Frank, good point. Jackass is more of a documentary than F911, and it's even made by smarter people too. Let me tell ya, even watching one of the Jackass guys put a toy car up his ass is less unpleasant than seeing Michael Moore.

Better get two of them there ass checkers, and maybe a gas mask just in case

Having seen 'Bowling For Columbine' with a group of Bed Wetting Gun Grabbers last year. And spending many wonderful minutes punching holes in it's 'Continuty' while being told to STFU. Then commenting on it's slick, quick editing and completely pasted together, BS 'Timeline'.

I know that somewhere Leni Reifenstahl is laughing her ass off!

The NYT even describes Jackass as a documentary; from the Rotten Tomatoes review page:
"Like a documentary version of Fight Club, shorn of social insight, intellectual pretension and cinematic interest."
-- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES

Frank, someone is giving you kudos for this post at:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/

The estimate may not have beaten Jackass, but when the actual numbers came in it turns out it actually pulled in $23,920,637.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2004&wknd=26&p=.htm

Frank- You are officially the "Best of the Web Today!"

Yeah, follow Rob's link. You guys are wrong: F911 did beat Jackass's ass.

Not that this dumb pissing contest really matters to 99.99999% of the world.

Very clever. Just one problem with your facts though, it turns out that they're wrong.

Look at the GENRE section on the page you link to. For Jackass, it lists:

Comedies, Reality-Based (Tv), Performance Artists, Stunt People

For Fahrenheit 9/11 it lists:
Education/General Interest, Politics, Terrorism, Documentary, Terrorists, Money

Here's the URL:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Fahrenheit911-1133649/

You see, the purpose of Jackass was to shock and titillate and to deliberately stage events that had no purpose beyond the movie, but not to transmit information. The purpose of Fahrenheit 9/11 was to convey facts about the world, albeit with a very obvious perspective. Hence the first is more akin to stand-up comedy (Is "Eddie Murphy: Raw" a documentary?) than to a documentary film, and even the rottentomatoes.com webmaster has figured this out. A documentary is more than merely non-fiction.

I believe you owe those of us who give a shit about the facts an apology. Most people actually check their sources before doing this sort of thing. Nice job getting on Sully's front page, too bad it's all for naught.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=documentary.htm

Not much competition, if you ask me... second place was tupac's film for opening weekends and Bowling for Columbine for overall... he's competing with his own crap and a thug wanna-be, who cares?

Bryguy,

FWIW, IMDB puts Jackass in the Documentary and Comedy categories.

Oh well...it was fun while it lasted. But throw your sour grapes at CNN, not Frank. If you followed the link you'd see that CNN was reporting the $21.8 million gross at the time F911 was happily claiming the #1 spot.

And give me a break..."comedies, reality-based, performance art and stunt people" is pretty much what one gets at a Micheal Moore film.

RottenTomatoes does however, apply the "documentary" label to Madonna's Truth or Dare...apparently all you have to add to a performance film is a few minutes of behind-the-scene "everybody is just being themselves" clips and PRESTO! Instant documentary!!!

As well...

mojo states that 'compilation and reality TV movies omitted.'

I think it's already been pointed out above (not all of the comments are readable on my computer), but you're wrong. Moore's movie is one of the rare films whose opening weekend numbers have been revised upwards. It pulled in $24.1 million, not $21.8 million.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2004-06-28&p=.htm

Consider your ass fact-checked.

The final three-day gross ended at $23.9 million, better than Jackass which opened on 2,509 screens, as opposed to the 868 that Fahrenheit 9/11 opend on.

Well, Mike Moore has done it. His movie has the right-wing ideologues going into convulsions and foaming a the mouth. The name calling and invective being thrown at him shows that he has really gotten to them.

No longer will liberals allow right-wing bullies to kick sand in their faces. Moore is willing to get down into the gutter with them and meet them at their own level. I love it.

To bash Bush is the highest form of patriotism because Bush is the worst president we have had in over 100 years and he is doing this country a tremendous amount of harm.

How to avoid looking like an idiot:

When reading the news it sometimes is useful to look at when an article is posted. In this case that would be Sunday, June 27, 2004 10:56 PM EDT.

So a person might ask themself "how can they possibly know how much money this movie made on Sunday when Sunday isn't even over yet?"

Doesn't this eagerness to trust CNN seem kind of ironic?

Some author of silly articles needs to look up the definition of "documentary". It certainly applies to Moore's piece.

Most documentaries are, in fact, slanted to a point of view, like Moore's movie.

There is nothing in the definition of "documentary" that requires balance. Furthermore, other than where he goes and asks congressmen to sign the petition to ask congressmen's kids to enlist to go to Iraq, it is not "staged events" such as Jackass.

Don't forget In Seach of Noah's Ark that grossed around $58 million. Don't know if that is adjusted.

Clawed,
Michael Moore did something and filmed it; the Jackass people did stuff and filmed it. No distinction between them except that Jackass makes no false claims... making it more of a documentary which should involve facts. If you want to overthrow Bush, put your political power behind Jackass, the better documentary.

In your "UPDATE" you bring up the fact that "Jackass" has made more money than Moore's film, as if that is relevant. It is not. As your own link indicates, you are comparing 11 weeks of box office for Jackass to THREE DAYS for Moore's movie. Can you please explain why you think such a comparison is fair?

Instead of grasping at straws, why don't you post another UPDATE admitting that this post was totally, completely and factually incorrect, even by your own arbitrary definition of what a "documentary" is. You've made yourself and Andrew Sullivan look like vindictive dupes. In about 5 days from now (or 10 at the very most), even your UPDATE will be incorrect. After 11 weeks, Moore's film will have made around $100 million.

SD:

Thanks for the update. I admit I'd take IMDB more authoritatively than rottentomatoes, and that's mitigates my claim significantly.

However, it's still true that F911 is unambiguously a documentary according to anyone without an axe to grind while there's some controversy about whether or not Jackass is one.

But ladies and gentlemen, especially if you haven't seen F911 yet, please drop the "false claims" business unless you want to cite specifics. Moore made a much tighter movie than Bowling for Columbine, probably because of all the criticism he got for that one.

Michael Moore--talk about your war profiteer!

Hey,
What's the latest on Ray Bradbury's lawsuit?
Moore was a goldbrick at the plant back when he was supposed to work there, so don't expect much effort in the aspect of real work from this guy.
Unfortunately, he's getting a lot of exposure.
(:(

Ray Bradbury lawsuit? What lawsuit? There's no copyright on book titles.

Man, the people on this blog -- including the host -- are incredibly ill-informed.

Poor journalists. They’re under tremendous deadline and ratings pressure. Even if most of them were terribly bright or knew much about what they report on, it would still be hard. As it is, they’re doomed.

I always laugh when they quote box office sales. I’ve got a couple of brain cells to rub together and I figured out a long time ago that if the if the same number of people go to two movies ten years apart, the latest one will gross more because prices go up. (I know; I know - the journos are just mindlessly recycling the industry statistics, which are intended to make sales as impressive as possible. Don’t the papers have research departments anymore?)

Same for storms and riots: In dollar terms, each one is worse than the one before. I just don’t understand how anyone can say ‘worst (whatever) in American history’. What Galveston hurricane (8000 dead), you say? What New Madrid earthquake? What Baltimore and New York draft riots? Indeed.

Jim E.: Good point about copyright. Even if titles were copyrightable, I’m sure Moore’s use could be defended as “fair use”. (That having been said, Bradbury was the one who used the word ‘litigation’ in a couple of interviews. I expect someone who writes for a living knows a thing or two about copyright law.) Short version: Bradbury doesn’t care about the politics - he’s pissed that Moore didn’t ask first and didn’t return phone calls for six months. Also, he’s an old man and a writer; I think he’s entitled to some eccentricity and an occasional attack of prima-donna. Besides, with Fahrenheit 451 about to be re-released, so Dorothy Parker’s statement about ‘no such thing as bad publicity’ is working in Bradbury’s favor.

Now, what’s that were you saying about “ill-informed”? Glass houses, Mr. “Gotcha”. I was so stunned by your (and Captain Video’s) fact-filled, tour-de-force articulation of irrefutable viewpoints it took me almost an hour to recover…

Jim E., while you are reading the comments section of this blog you should also check out some of the past posts. One of my favorites is the Career Day "In My World" post. You can find it by looking under the In My World category. I read it around the time I was signing up to do a career day at a local high school so it made me laugh extra hard.

FYI: the host, Frank J. has an engineer degree and got a job so he is actually very smart. Among other readers there are 2 Berkeley chicks/girls. Getting into Berkeley is also very smart by most objective measures.

If you want specifics for factual inaccuracies you can always check Christopher Hitchens!

By all means, see the film, if you've got time to kill.

But don't pay for it - don't put the bucks in Moore's pocket. A copy resides on http://moorewatch.com

The film is... well, terrible. It recycles all of the liberal rants from the past three years starting with "George Bush stole the election." I wached it to write a fisk, and I am working on it, but it almost feels like a waste of time. I'd say "waste of effort," but the truth is that there's hardly any effort involved, the thing practically fisks itself.

-BF

Some of these post confirm my belief that all Republicans are mean or stupid or both. Documentary films need not be unbiased or objective. All they need to be is non-fiction. As for Jackass, I'm not so sure it's non-fiction. Stuff really happened in that film (in the sense that stuff really happened in a Lars von Trier film), but it was all part of a performance. I find it fascinating that no one has the balls to dispute Moore on the facts. There is nothing here but ad hominem attacks. Let's put two people on the scales of justice: Moore and Bush. I think a fair measurement is number of people killed. Or number of laws violated. Or number of lies told (Seventh Commandment, people!!). Or number of attempts to usurp the Constitution you are sworn to uphold. Or number of friends he helped to make rich with the blood of American soldiers and brown people. Guess who is a better human being?

Jackass: The Movie is a documentary. It also had a smaller opening weekend gross on a much wider release than Fahrenheit 9/11.

Jackass: The Move opening gross (on 2,509 screens) was $22,763,437. It was the number one movie at the box office when it opened. Per screen average was $9,073.
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2002/JCKAS.html

Fahrenheit 9/11 opened on June 25th. Excluding totals from advanced screenings on June 23 and June 24, the opening gross was (on 868 screens) was $23,837,037. Per screen average was $27,588.
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2004/FH911.php

It is true that Fahrenheit 9/11 isn't the highest grossing documentary film of all time. But, it did have a bigger opening weekend than Jackass: The Movie, it also had a higher per screen total, and it broke records at the two theatres in which it showed prior to the June 25, 2004 opening date.

There are reasons when they put films on less screens...

...yeah, such as when Disney refuses to distribute the film.

There are also reasons why films -- such as Moore's little $6 million documentary -- unexpectedly go into wider distribution in their second and third weeks of release. It's a rare occurence, but money talks.

Pole,
"I think a fair measurement is number of people killed."
George W. Bush is a President, Moore is a filmmaker. Most American Presidents have had to make decisions which resulted in people getting killed, you just point out that George W. Bush has a position of great responsibility. I assume you refer to the Iraq war that we entered with the approval of Congress (Democrats as well as Republicans). Moore may have caused the deaths of some US soldiers by his irresponsible filmmaking but that would be hard to prove objectively. I would rather answer for President Bush's reasons for endangering soldiers than answer for Mr. Moore's reasons.

"...number of laws violated."
Maybe accurate if you count the number of criminal convictions, not just accusations. I am too lazy to look this up I don't think it would prove much. I think Bush may have a DUI.

"number of attempts to usurp the Constitution"
Lawyers could argue for days on this one. The personal effect I feel is that I am more catious about doing anything that could be seen as sabotage or pro-terrorist. This does not limit my life much, just like most of the other laws of our land. Moore's film shows that freedom of speech hasn't been limited much.

"number of friends he helped to make rich with the blood of American soldiers and brown people". I never understood the simple minded logic that a President would start a war for profit or popularity. Cabinet appointments and pushing certain laws would be so much easier if that were the intent. Wars typically hurt the economy with the uncertainty they bring and emphasis on defense spending over other sectors of the economy. Spending 10's of billions of taxpayer money and sending our young men and women to battle will not be popular on their own, only with good reason to go to war.

I would summarize the "who is a better man" question with FDR's speech about, "It is not the critic who counts, ... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena..." I.e. critics don't count for squat compared to people who take action and are subjected to criticism.

Sorry for using so much space defending the President of our country against a person like Mr. Moore.

Pole,
"I find it fascinating that no one has the balls to dispute Moore on the facts."

Obviously you didn't read the Christopher Hitchens article. Yes, the same person who refered to Reagan as an "evil lizard" during the week of his funeral, obviously not a conservative idealogue.

If Democrats could read, then Gore would be President... oh, wait, if Democrats could read, then they'd be Republicans... nevermind.

"The purpose of Fahrenheit 9/11 was to convey facts about the world"

Wha-? When did that happen?

Hey Pole---
"Some of these post confirm my belief that all Republicans are mean or stupid or both."

Haven't you learned yet that "All _________ are ___________" statements make you look mean? Or stupid? Or both?

Haha, goobers. That's a funny word. Almost as funny as Frank proving that he's right and the goobers are goobers.

My (biased and unsubstantiated) opinion is that most of the people who want to see Fahrenheit 7/11 have already seen it, and that its box office takes will now drastically die.

Of course I also believe that "The liberals were always trying to create their own Rush Limbaugh since Limbaugh first became a success. To this end, they got some Limbaugh DNA from a discarded cigar. The genes were incomplete, though, and they finished the chromosomes with genes from warthog, gorilla, and skunk DNA. Thus came about the hideous creation known as Michael Moore."

So much for the fact checking, huh?

Just a thought.

When your central claim turns out to be based on incomplete data it's better to simply recognize it rather than try to change the goalposts.

Just a thought.

When your central claim turns out to be based on incomplete data it's better to simply recognize it rather than try to change the goalposts.

Pole, darling... how could these posts confirm that all Republicans are mean or stupid, when you haven't ascertained the political affiliations of the posters? Do you even know that the posters are registered Republicans, and if so, how? If you don't, why are you assuming so and drawing a sweeping conclusion about nearly half the population of the United States based on a characteristic of a few posters that may exist only in your head? Furthermore, the conclusion that you are drawing is a negative one, and drawing an unsubstantiated negative conclusion about an entire group of people is often considered extremely stupid... much more so than questioning the nature of what a "documentary" is. ;) You, friend, need to be a little more careful when speaking in public. Do try to make sense next time, and spell-check your post, if you will. :)

"You, friend, need to be a little more careful when speaking in public."

Perhaps you meant "typing" or "writing" rather than "speaking"? You need to be a little more careful when writing for in public.

delete "for". Argh!! So much for my little zing.

It continually amuses me that people still come to read all this drivel, but, as someone once said, there is just no accounting for taste. ;)

Rearding Fahrenheit 9/11:

To let you know, the highest-grossing documentary is "Everest" (1998) at $71.4 million.

"To let you know, the highest-grossing documentary is "Everest" (1998) at $71.4 million."

Keep moving the goalposts fellas...you won't even be in the stadium soon. As of today (the 14th day in release) Fahrenheit 911 has grossed $68, 880.000 dollars. Having passed Randy Andy's "boys with toys" documentary's gross yesterday, F-911 should skip right past "Everest" by Monday morning.

Take a few days...and come up with a new rationale to downgrade the film's success. Okay kids? "chortle!"

The outright lies invented and ignorance exposed beacause of this movie is amazing to me. It's like dropping a smoke bomb in a gopher hole, and watching the gophers scatter.

Red Dawn a documentary? Passion of the Christ a documentary? Are you serious? I thought you people were supposed to be educated. So much for polls.

Here's a typical "lie" uncovered by you corporate-welfare conservatives:

'Michael Moore said only 1 of 535 congressmans' sons is serving in Iraq'

'But actually it was 7 of 535! What a liar - look at them all - 7!. Oh wait, it is actually 7 serving in the ENTIRE military, and I don't have the foggiest how many are serving in Iraq'

http://moorewatch.com

You guys have gotta ask yourselves why this movie upsets you so much? I mean, is it because there are lies? Every day of your life you encounter lies, and don't start 50 websites devoted to exposing them.

So why now? What in this film makes you so angry that your minds turn off, and you are willing to lie without remorse?

I hope you can think about that without rancour for a moment - the clarity of thought could be enlightening.

Fahrenheit 9/11

Current US Gross: $88,909,000 (and climbing)

Current Worldwide Gross: $92,609,000 (and climbing)

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2004/FH911.php

'Everest'? left in the dust, and reduced to a speck.

Total US Gross: $76,447,420

Worldwide Gross: N/A

Or, to put it another way : Fahrenheit Minus $16,161,580

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1998/0EVER.html

'Jackass: The Movie'? Doesn't come close.

Total US Gross: $64,282,312

Total Worldwide Gross: $75,466,905

Or, to put it another way: Fahrenheit Minus $17,142,095

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2002/JCKAS.html

And all the bitter, envious jackasses here, trying to demean Moore's achievement? Humiliated and Embarrased.

I've never been too hot at math, but I know I'm not so much of a goober that I think 76 Million or 75 Million is more than 92 Million (and climbing)

100 Million here we come! Let's see. More than 10 million people have seen it, more will see it in the theaters , of course, and many, many more will see the DVD of course, but let's say 10 million. Let's be generous to the cynics and say only 5% of those moviegoers are uncommitted or Republicans. That's 500,000 swing or Bush voters. Let's say of that 5%, only one in 10 is convinced by the film and decides to vote for Kerry (again, I'm being generous to the cynics). That makes 50,000 anti-Bush votes, in an election that could be as close as last time. If only 0.5% of the people seeing the film change their vote to Kerry, or are convinced to cast a ballot by the movie, that's 50,000 new votes for Kerry.

(oh, and climbing)

Wow, no wonder you guys are worried.

And that 50,000 guess is a *hehehehehehehehehe*.....conservative estimate.

I just HAD to say that.

Newsflash, There was an error in my previous post. I neglected to mention the movie To Fly released in 1976.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1976/0TFLY.html

It has grossed around $82 million which puts it..oh wait...behind F 9/11.

ALL HAIL THE UNDISPUTED MOST SUCCESSFUL DOCUMENTARY OF ALL TIME!!

Fahrenheit 9/11 !!

I've gone stats crazy! Check out this page from Gallup

http://www.gallup.com/content/default.aspx?ci=12379

It surveys who has seen the movie, plans to see it, and definitely won't see it, breaking it down into Dems, Reps and Indies. 8% of American adults have seen the film. That (according to my calculations) is around 13 million people. 13 million! And another 48% plan to see it in the theater, or on DVD. 56% of the adult population is almost 97.5 million people. Lordy, if even ONE PERCENT of those people decide to vote for Kerry when they would not otherwise have done so, that's almost ONE MILLION VOTES FOR KERRY!

If I was Republican, I would be shitting bricks right now.

Luckily I'm not , so I'm beaming like a goddamm Cheshire cat.

And the right-wingers have all gone so very , very quiet.

I like them better that way.

US Gross: $106,334,000 (and counting)

Records broken.

Asses kicked.

Moore's opponents are big-time goobers.

It's amazing to read all the insults in these notes. Is it at all possible for people to make their points without making personal insults? Moore's weight has no impact on his politics and commentary any more than Cheney's weight and heart problems have on his. And making insulting spellings ("Michael (the) Moor", "Mhore", "Fraud-in-Heat911") just remove most of a poster's credibility and it makes people with opposing viewpoints just ignore the post and the person who posted it. Come on folks, we can do better than that in presenting our views. Sheesh. Focus on the facts, not the insults and opinions. That is, after all, what this blog posting was originally about.

The story at the top of this page is a complete fabrication, as shown by IMDB.com:

Jackass: The Movie (2002)

Opening Weekend
$22,763,437 (USA) (27 October 2002) (2,509 Screens)

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Opening Weekend
$23,920,637 (USA) (27 June 2004) (868 Screens)

Also, notice the huge difference in the number of screens. F911 blew Jackass completely off the chart!

"Yeah, that's right; we're the blogosphere and we'll fact-check your ass"

We did, you lost. Nice try at spin, but unlike YOU I DID check my facts.