The anti-Obama documentary 2016: Obama's America took in more than $3 million to catapult over a bevy of Michael Moore movies and become the second-highest grossing political documentary of all time this weekend. Reports Deadline:
It’s a heated contest between conservatives vs liberals in the political documentary genre, too. 2016: Obama’s America grossed $26.2M by end of today (give or take some bucks) and passed 4 of Michael Moore’s five political documentaries to become the #2 all-time biggest. ...
It now has made more money (not adjusted for inflation or higher ticket prices) than Moore’s Sicko (2007 – $24.5M), Oscar-winner Bowling For Columbine (2002 – $21.5M), and Capitalism: A Love Story (2009 – $14.3M). The right-wing doc 2016 Obama’s America is produced by Gerald R. Molen who in fact credits "learning some lessons" from Moore. "When he released Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004 ahead of the election, it sparked intense debate." 2016 Obama’s America also has passed the box office for Al Gore’s and Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006 – $24.1M) and is the #1 biggest-grossing conservative political docu ever (besting Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed’s $7.7M).
2016 is unlikely to top Fahrenheit 9/11, which grossed more than $119 million. Deadline also noted that the film has been buoyed by intense grassroots support:
Its success was aided by savvy marketing: exhibitors were reporting busloads arriving at theaters around the country in pre-organized trips. It also employed much of the same selling techniques used to garner attention and support for faith-based films, understandable since the audience is overlapping. Its campaign included advertising nationally on talk radio and cable news channels including Fox News Channel, A&E, History and MSNBC.