> Its limited four-theater release in New York and Los Angeles on October 9 had a respectable opening weekend gross—each screen earning an average of $17,225 for a $68,900 total. Expanding to more theaters in more markets was the logical next step, which its distributor Bleeker Street Films did last Friday, raising the number of screens to 472. But Musk’s wider-debut was an unmitigated flop, netting a paltry $614 per screen, for an abysmal second weekend total of $290,000. Box Office Mojo has the film’s to-date total up to $571,902, as of this article’s publication.
The article also questions this showbiz411 article
> Showbiz411’s post claims the doc is “gone from almost every theater in America,” save “one or two odd places that didn’t get the memo.” It attempts to substantiate its case by saying the list of theaters on Bleeker Street’s website for Musk showtimes “shows that all 472 were listed as playing the movie today. But no more.” There’s no elaboration as to what that means. The only sort of receipt we’re offered is a blurry, unzoomable screenshot below of… the list of theaters showing the doc prior to the purported change.
> The blog also has an unsourced line that “online, people started commenting earlier this week that shows they’d bought tickets for were canceled without warning.” I was able to find a Reddit post backing that up. But no other outlet of good or ill repute is saying Musk’s been pulled.
I wouldn’t be surprised if cinemas are canceling tickets if there are only one or two people booking a screening. May as well show something people want to see.
Gotta give a thumbs down to the reporting here. At no point did it explain _why_ it’s disappearing. I was curious, and after reading it I still am. Did it catastrophically flop so the cinemas are ditching screenings? Is the mention of some small cinemas “not getting the memo” just a turn of phrase or is there some distributor/studios/licensing thing killing it?
Ebay co-founder Pierre Omidyar is the guy that more or less bought off the reporters with access to the Snowden documents for $250M [0] back in 2013.
The same guy just bought the company distributing the Musk film (checks notes) 9 days ago; it was then quickly pulled from theaters. Make of that what you will, as the Gizmodo piece says, the timing is certainly odd.
Did it catastrophically flop so the cinemas are ditching screenings?
Yes. This story is a perfect example of being deceptive while not saying anything that's false. They conveniently leave out the abysmal revenue numbers, hoping readers will assume it was due to censorship or threats.
It's entirely normal for a 4 hour film to be pulled after the second week. 90% of such films don't even make the first week, they go to festivals or special screenings only
I can believe that this film would have trouble finding an audience.
On the one hand, I'm a huge fan of Alex Gibney's documentaries and I would normally be enthusiastic about a new film. On the other hand, I find Elon Musk utterly loathsome and, more importantly, completely uninteresting beyond his loathsomeness. I just can't work up any desire to spend a few hours with the man.
Compare this with You Can See Everything. I think Elizabeth Holmes is a fraud, but at least she's an interesting fraud.
Maybe its a good thing, if people loose interest in such folk. A sort of fatigue can set in I guess.
A never ending stream of loathsome people, seem to have been propped up by the Attention Economy. Provoking others gets Attention. Also why Musk got worried and had to buy a platform when there was a threat to being blocked from getting Attention. But maybe the system has some upper limit.
As now multiple other comments in this thread seem to show, “this issue” seems to be entirely that a four-hour documentary that nobody went to see was cancelled by theaters.
Gizmodo has a better article
> Its limited four-theater release in New York and Los Angeles on October 9 had a respectable opening weekend gross—each screen earning an average of $17,225 for a $68,900 total. Expanding to more theaters in more markets was the logical next step, which its distributor Bleeker Street Films did last Friday, raising the number of screens to 472. But Musk’s wider-debut was an unmitigated flop, netting a paltry $614 per screen, for an abysmal second weekend total of $290,000. Box Office Mojo has the film’s to-date total up to $571,902, as of this article’s publication.
https://gizmodo.com/it-seems-like-the-critical-musk-doc-just...
The article also questions this showbiz411 article
> Showbiz411’s post claims the doc is “gone from almost every theater in America,” save “one or two odd places that didn’t get the memo.” It attempts to substantiate its case by saying the list of theaters on Bleeker Street’s website for Musk showtimes “shows that all 472 were listed as playing the movie today. But no more.” There’s no elaboration as to what that means. The only sort of receipt we’re offered is a blurry, unzoomable screenshot below of… the list of theaters showing the doc prior to the purported change.
> The blog also has an unsourced line that “online, people started commenting earlier this week that shows they’d bought tickets for were canceled without warning.” I was able to find a Reddit post backing that up. But no other outlet of good or ill repute is saying Musk’s been pulled.
I wouldn’t be surprised if cinemas are canceling tickets if there are only one or two people booking a screening. May as well show something people want to see.
Gotta give a thumbs down to the reporting here. At no point did it explain _why_ it’s disappearing. I was curious, and after reading it I still am. Did it catastrophically flop so the cinemas are ditching screenings? Is the mention of some small cinemas “not getting the memo” just a turn of phrase or is there some distributor/studios/licensing thing killing it?
Ebay co-founder Pierre Omidyar is the guy that more or less bought off the reporters with access to the Snowden documents for $250M [0] back in 2013.
The same guy just bought the company distributing the Musk film (checks notes) 9 days ago; it was then quickly pulled from theaters. Make of that what you will, as the Gizmodo piece says, the timing is certainly odd.
[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-24563445
Did it catastrophically flop so the cinemas are ditching screenings?
Yes. This story is a perfect example of being deceptive while not saying anything that's false. They conveniently leave out the abysmal revenue numbers, hoping readers will assume it was due to censorship or threats.
It's entirely normal for a 4 hour film to be pulled after the second week. 90% of such films don't even make the first week, they go to festivals or special screenings only
Not surprised. I mean 3h 52m of moaning about Musk. Who's going to watch it?
I mean if they cut it to 1:30 of slagging Musk and threw in some jokes maybe.
If there's a 10 min highlights edit on youtube I'd likely watch it.
Between Melania and Musk, which one would go to see?
I can believe that this film would have trouble finding an audience.
On the one hand, I'm a huge fan of Alex Gibney's documentaries and I would normally be enthusiastic about a new film. On the other hand, I find Elon Musk utterly loathsome and, more importantly, completely uninteresting beyond his loathsomeness. I just can't work up any desire to spend a few hours with the man.
Compare this with You Can See Everything. I think Elizabeth Holmes is a fraud, but at least she's an interesting fraud.
[Hmmm, this was briefly flagged/dead?]
Maybe its a good thing, if people loose interest in such folk. A sort of fatigue can set in I guess. A never ending stream of loathsome people, seem to have been propped up by the Attention Economy. Provoking others gets Attention. Also why Musk got worried and had to buy a platform when there was a threat to being blocked from getting Attention. But maybe the system has some upper limit.
Ah, censorship.
Well, no, I frequently hear, especially from Americans, that unless it’s government action, then it’s not “censorship”, but “consequences”.
You see, you're not listening to the "free speech absolutists". And they're not speaking up about this issue.
As now multiple other comments in this thread seem to show, “this issue” seems to be entirely that a four-hour documentary that nobody went to see was cancelled by theaters.
HN censored this post, eh? It's "vanished" from the entire list... less than 30 minutes after posting... interesting.