Conservative author and documentarian Dinesh D’Souza’s film “Obama’s America: 2016” outpaced box office predictions over the weekend when it expanded from a limited release to 1,091 theaters.
The documentary, which traces President Barack Obama’s Hawaiian, Kenyan and Indonesian roots, grossed $6.2 million over the weekend, just behind Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s star-vehicle “Premium Rush” and ahead of the indie comedy “Hit and Run” and the poorly received horror flick “The Apparition.”
“Obama’s America” is now the highest-grossing documentary of the year, beating out the highly publicized, Weinstein-produced “Bully.”
“It’s extremely rare for a documentary to break into the top-10, but August can be a land of opportunity for smaller films,” Hollywood.com box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told The Associated Press. “Also, there’s the fact that this is a very conservative film. Normally, it’s Michael Moore-branded documentaries, the liberal documentaries that make all the money.”
Michael Moore’s documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” took in $23.9 million when it premiered the summer before the 2004 election.
While D’Souza’s film won’t likely surpass that, the film has exceeded expectations to become one of the highest-grossing political documentaries ever.
The film is expected to remain in theaters until October and get a DVD release before the Nov. 6 election. (SEE ALSO: Dinesh D’Souza opens up about his upcoming documentary)
“What’s happening is that people are really hungry for new information about Obama. There really is this sense that he remains an elusive figure,” D’Souza told the AP. “Then there’s a second sense that the American dream is in the balance, the American dream is at stake, and that gives people a sense of anxiety about where the country is going.”
Watch the trailer for “Obama’s America”: