'Fahrenheit 9/11' Heats Up N.Y. Theaters

June 24, 2004 -- Michael Moore was still grousing about the R rating for Fahrenheit 9/11, even as the film set box-office records in New York today, a day ahead of the controversial documentary's national release.

Online ticket service Fandango.com reported Moore's Bush-bashing film, which began showing Wednesday in two New York theaters, was making up 48 percent of its national advance ticket sales for the coming weekend — compared to 11 percent for Dodgeball, last week's No. 1 movie, and 9 percent for next week's powerhouse opening of Spider-Man 2.

"It seems there was not a Republican in the house, judging by all the applause," said a woman at one of the first public screenings Wednesday night, at Lincoln Plaza Theater in Manhattan.

Lion's Gate Films, one of the distributors of the documentary, said it opened the film at two New York theaters to promote good word-of-mouth publicity before Friday, when the film will begin playing in 868 theaters across the country.

Theater managers at Lincoln Plaza reported the film raked in $30,000 Wednesday to make it the movie house's biggest one-day draw, topping Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000.

Loew's Village 7 Theater, the other New York venue showing Moore's film, said Fahrenheit 9/11 topped the single-day record of $43,000, set by 1997's Men in Black.

Controversy may be helping Fahrenheit 9/11, just as it helped The Passion of the Christ, which has earned $370 million at the box office, making it the second-largest grossing film of the year, behind Shrek 2.

Reviews have been mixed, but the Oscar-winning filmmaker is clearly benefiting from his notoriety as a left-wing political agitator.

"Controversy? … What Controversy?" asks the tagline on movie posters.

Mixing Pop Culture and Commentary

In Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore mixes pop culture and commentary to slam the administration's policies on the wars on terror and in Iraq.