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An anti-Obama film by an Indian-American conservative author that has rocked the box office is set to make further inroads across the nation, thanks to the buzz created by Republican National convention.
Mumbai-born Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary 2016: Obama’s America, that purports to show what the nation will be like should President Obama be re-elected, will expand to about 1,800 theatres on Friday, entertainment trade site TheWrap reported citing Rocky Mountain Pictures.
That’s up from the 1,091 theatres it played in over the weekend, when it took in $6.2 million between Friday and Sunday for a per-screen average of $5,940 – the best of any film in wide release. It added another $1.2 million at the box office on Monday.
Produced for roughly $2.1 million, the film – with its catchphrase, “Love Him. Hate Him. You Don’t Know Him” – has made $10.3 million since its release seven weeks ago and has surpassed Bully as the year’s top-earning documentary.
Co-directors John Sullivan and D’Souza, along with producers Gerald Molen and Doug Sain, are in Tampa, Florida for the Republican gathering that Tuesday officially anointed Mitt Romney as its presidential candidate to challenge Obama in the November 6 election.
Based on D’Souza’s book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage, the documentary basically argues that Obama has a pro-third world view inherited from his Kenyan father, and he is actively and wilfully working to dilute America’s primacy in the world.
Trade publication Variety pegs it as a “slickly produced” documentary that could “turn a tidy profit” with content that prompts discussion about “President Obama as a clear and present danger whose socialist governing philosophy has been indelibly coloured by radical influences.”
Although it’s not likely to win fans among Obama supporters, Variety’s review continues, “there’s no gain saying the value of 2016 as a sort of Cliffs Notes precise of the conservative case against the re-election of our current US president”.
