OUCH! Conservative Quasi-Doc PROUD AMERICAN Worst Wide Opening of All Time

When Nathan Frankowski's right-leaning nonfiction EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED opened wide on over 1000 screens this spring and subsequently wowed the box office with a 2 million-plus opening weekend, we wondered whether this heralded a new trend for successful conservative docs (which had theretofore struggled to find a box office audience).

Not if this weekend is any indicator.

Fred Ashman's PROUD AMERICAN, self-synopsized as detailing the "(o)pportunity, personal responsibility, and the free enterprise system" that created America's success, had a disastrous opening weekend, according to estimates at Box Office Mojo.

The film opened on 750 screens and averaged just $180 per.  According to BOM, this makes PROUD AMERICAN the worst wide opening in the history of cinema.

Although PROUD AMERICAN is described as a documentary, it should be noted that the film contains a number of acted vignettes, as noted by the NY Times pan from Andy Webster:

"(T)wo sequences recreate the early days of Coke and Wal-Mart (yes, actors play the young Sam and Helen Walton), invoking both corporate behemoths as examples of singular ingenuity...

These accounts, starring fading television faces like James B. Sikking (the SWAT leader on “Hill Street Blues”) and Ken Howard (“The White Shadow”) proceed in their blunt, Hallmark-moment way. Punctuating the relentless bathos are appearances by the comedian Yakov Smirnoff (you remember: “America — what a country!”) and montage barrages of sun-saturated landscapes, national monuments and softball games, accompanied by generic choral singing. Moviegoers are actually expected to pay for this hollow uplift. Don’t even consider it."

Webster notes that Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Wal-Mart and American Airlines are listed as sponsors of the film, with their logos in the opening credits, although apparently the film claims (in its opening) that the sponsors had no influence on the content.  Ashman's bio, it should be noted, describes him as "one of the nations premiere corporate media producer/directors".

Comments

[Radio Pictures]

"Although PROUD AMERICAN is described as a documentary, it should be noted that the film contains a number of acted vignettes."

I find this comment rather insipid. By this do you mean that you have a definition of documentary that one should subscribe to? And, if so, what is that definition? Are you suggesting that because it has "acted vignettes" that is may not be a "documentary."

[AJ Schnack]

I don't get into the whole documentary/not a documentary debate, which is why I use the term nonfiction more than anything else. However, there are plenty of folks in the self-described "documentary community" who would view PROUD AMERICAN as not a true doc based on having actors & scripts involved. I don't necessarily agree (if I did, I probably wouldn't write about the film, since it would fall out of our purview), but my comments were directed at that debate.

[Radio Pictures]

The whole documentary/not a documentary debate can get ludicrous and only seems to serve those who fail to appreciate that filmmaking "craft" is an essential ingredient to making a film.

[Louis Cabeza]

Doc/not a doc? Really, I thought it was settled with Nanook. Documentary, from its beginning has included an element of recreation. And, despite the misguided ideas of some, there is no absolute objective observer, ever. It is really discouraging to still be hearing this posited as a position. I would equate it with comparing creationism and darwinism as equal valid models. And yes, I did find the insertion of the comment as an editorial comment on the content.

[Pepe]

Doc/Not Doc: The Most Boring Argument In Cinema, Part CCXXIV

[songpoemCD]

Perhaps the world's worst timing of an opening weekend as well... not exactly the perfect time to try and promote a film with this statement:" the free enterprise system is the platform in which America's success is molded".

Apparently they didnt notice the meltdown of our entire financial system over the past year. Ouch!