Elliott

Ben Stein shows he's no Michael Moore
John Byrne
Published: Sunday April 20, 2008

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If numbers are any indication, Ben Stein has shown he's no Michael Moore.

Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a documentary which makes an argument for intelligent design over the theory of evolution, debuted at just number eight among the top ten grossing movies last week.

The film made $1.2 million on Friday in 1,052 theaters. By comparison, Michael Moore's 'Sicko' raken in $23.9 million its opening weekend from just 441 theaters, and Fahrenheit 9/11 did $23.9 million from only 868 slots.

"Playing in 1,052 theaters, the pic distributed by Rocky Mountain Pictures earned $1.2M Friday for what should be a $3.4M weekend," penned Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily. "But the per screen average for Friday was a feeble $1,130 (that $3,000 ballyhooed on the Internet would be for the entire weekend), showing there wasn't any pent-up demand for the film despite an aggressive publicity campaign. So much for the conservative argument that people would flock to films not representing the "agenda of liberal Hollywood.'"

On Friday, The New York Times' Jeannette Catsoulis called the movie "one of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time... a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry."

Expelled's producers have also been accused of copyright violations -- they're said not to have secured the rights for the use of John Lennon's "Imagine" and The Killer's "All these things I have done."

Among the more popular flicks?

The Forbidden Kingdom, the Jet Li-Jackie Chan synergy is set to score $21.1 million for the weekend; number two is Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which netted $5.9 million on Friday.

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Chantytown

Oh wow. Is THAT what that movie was about?

I saw a couple commercials for it but I guess I kinda just blacked out everytime Ben Stein's head appeared on screen.

Kana

That man is such an imbecile. I've scraped things with higher IQs than Ben Stein off the bottom of my shoes. Now, he's made himself into a joke. I can't help but shake my head and laugh.

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Groovyville

babylonDon

I really liked Win Ben Stein's Money, I've always wanted to like him, but every time he addresses a social or political issue, he makes me sad.

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"America, the greatest, best country that God has ever given man, on the face of the Earth"- Sean Hannity, professional broadcast journalist.

“To the contrary, has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don’t think so.”-Antonin Scalia

CanadianChick

My thoughts exactly.