Box office shock: Documentary about failed, sanctimonious one-term president tanks spectacularly
posted at 8:27 am on October 29, 2007 by Bryan
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Hollywood director Jonathan Demme seems to have too much money and too little sense. Demme, who directed The Silence of the Lambs and Swimming to Cambodia (no, that second one is not about John Kerry’s Rambo-like exploits and achievements in time travel, fighting under the illegal orders of a president who hadn’t taken office yet) bankrolled Jimmy Carter: The Man from Plains. It’s a documentary that follows the ex-president around as he tours to promote his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
On its first weekend, the film did a whopping 10 grand at the box office in 7 theatres. That works out to about $1500 per theater, not enough to cover a single screening fee.
How surprising. Who wouldn’t want to sit through two hours watching an old man dodge questions about plagiarism, his book’s extreme anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian bisa, his illogical equation of Israel with South African apartheid, and his repeat offenses of snuggling with anti-American tinpots? Who wouldn’t want to see the self-righteous man who helped usher in the Iranian mullahcracy hug his Nobel and chastise the president who is having to clean up the mess that Carter left for all of his successors?
How could Demme have misjudged the movie-going public so badly?
Well, he’ll always have public schools and universities sell The Man From Plains to. It’ll probably end up in double features with An Inconvenient Truth with a year.
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All the anti-USA films are tanking spectactularly. Maybe soon, Hollywood will realize that getting applause from the Euro-Art crowd will not fill the coffers.
Ellen on October 29, 2007 at 8:33 AM
Wow, that is not mererly tanking,that is just digging a hole and throwing money in.
bbz123 on October 29, 2007 at 8:34 AM
As much as I want to avoid a Schadenfreude-type mentality, I’m finding it extremely difficult.
flyawaybird on October 29, 2007 at 8:44 AM
Where’s the creative soul that creates films without concern of commercial success?
Okay, seriously, a two-hour adventure in Jimmy Carter’s world would probably be considered a crime against humanity if the U.S. government showed it to the terrorists at Gitmo. What sane person would drop good money to listen to the sanctimonious fool try to re-write history by bashing Israel?
highhopes on October 29, 2007 at 8:48 AM
C’mon guys… everybody knows that illegal downloading is to blame for hollywood’s low box office numbers. j/k
Hollyweird has been making more than its fair share of excrement sandwiches this year.
bigbeas on October 29, 2007 at 8:48 AM
I guess it could be put to use for those who suffer from extreme insomnia. Carter – never a particularly good looking man in his prime – has become as ugly as The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Hilts on October 29, 2007 at 8:49 AM
lololololol They should make the Gitmo prisoners watch it.
bigbeas on October 29, 2007 at 8:50 AM
It’ll be on PBS before you know it. Or CNN.
Definitely al-Jazeera.
Meryl Yourish on October 29, 2007 at 8:51 AM
Jimmy must be a sad man, I don’t think he even casts a shadow. If he had his way, the US would be a 3rd world socialist country.
He strives for the lowest common denominator.
TheSitRep on October 29, 2007 at 8:54 AM
After 4 years of malaise (too kind a word), Carter became known as one of the best ex-presidents ever for his Habitat work.
He has managed to screw that rehabilated image up similar to his failed presidency.
Feeble twerp.
Valiant on October 29, 2007 at 9:01 AM
Come on, you guys. All the people in Hollywood will say is, “Those bleeping hicks from bleeping flyover country don’t understand our bleeping artistic vision with the movie about the bestest bleeping President ever!!!” Then they will launch another Britney Spears album on us and another reprehensible boy band.
And next year? A documentary about how Hitler was misunderstood and he only wanted what was best for the Jews. And how the Zionist media made Hitler and his cronies out to be murderous psychotics. Finally relating it to how much worser President Bush is than Hitler and Stalin. ‘Cause THAT’s what sells to the public. In Gaza, that is.
mjk on October 29, 2007 at 9:02 AM
Do I need to add that “bleeping” is a replacement for actual words I almost never say?
mjk on October 29, 2007 at 9:03 AM
Even the MSM critics are having a hard time swallowing this one whole; it’s only managed a 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The usual suspects are lapping it up, though; e.g., Salon.com:
If Jimmy Carter Man From Plains sometimes feels like the portrait of a saint, it also reminds us that saints are strange and private people pursuing a personal compact with an invisible deity, in solitude and often in sadness.
saint kansas on October 29, 2007 at 9:08 AM
Final post on this topic (I hope):
Maybe Jonathan Demme should take notes from, I believe, Eric Bana regarding when “Munich” bombed so spectacularly. If I recall correctly, Bana called people who protested and made such a big deal out of the underlying themes of “Munich” terrorists and being stupid. Because NOTHING endears you to the American public as accusing them of being stupid and equating them with people who strap bombs on themselves and blow themselves up in pizzerias and dance clubs.
Maybe Jonathan Demme, Eric Bana, George Clooney,and the Dixie Chicks can get together and celebrate how much smarterer they are than the rest of us. Of course, they’ll have to avoid the really big words and any and all critical thinking….
mjk on October 29, 2007 at 9:09 AM
Coming soon to a history class near you…….
Can somebody call Hitchens? We have definitive proof that God exists!
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on October 29, 2007 at 9:09 AM
Don’t worry; it’ll get a boost when it’s re-released after it wins an Oscar.
JammieWearingFool on October 29, 2007 at 9:09 AM
I glory and am grateful for my life and existance and cherish every breath I take.
I would shoot myself before watching two hours of jimmy carter.
peacenprosperity on October 29, 2007 at 9:17 AM
Carter used to use his belief in Christianity as an excuse for his shortcomings. I don’t hear him professing his faith these days, possibly since it would offend his allies in Islam.
He manages to make Chamberlain seem like a prophet. He and Clinton are tied in my book as the worse presidents of the last century. Clinton wins though, since his wife is a greater threat than he was. At least Mrs, Carter is a charming lady that must really suffer being around her hubby in silence.
Hening on October 29, 2007 at 9:19 AM
I would be more interested in seeing some of the people that would actually pay money to watch this dog.
rplat on October 29, 2007 at 9:22 AM
Not surprising. The sweetest part of this is the fact that the little twerp is a major-league narcissist. I watched him hold up the departure of a planeload of passenegers from BWI Airport just so they could (every single one of them, including yours truly) experience the orgasmic delight of meeting him. He must have really enjoyed having those documentarians following him around and filming every second and every word.
BTW, only my well-ingrained politeness kept me from crushing his limp little hand. And TheSitRep is right, he doesn’t cast a shadow, not enough substance.
Longhorn Six on October 29, 2007 at 9:23 AM
Actually, I think Demme has done a service here. So many important people have been lost to history simply because the technology hadn’t caught up. We have a Matthew Brady photograph of President Lincoln-who wouldn’t love to be able to have seen full video of the Gettysburg Address?
Future generations will remember Carter as we do Franklin Pierce-a footnote to the Presidency. But at least Demme has captured video of Carter, so future history students will be able to say, “Dang! That ugly old man was President before Hillary?”
Doug on October 29, 2007 at 9:28 AM
I am still concerned that it made 10 grand.
I heard that his family members paid double the ticket price to help get up the numbers.
ej_pez on October 29, 2007 at 9:31 AM
I blame my long memories of the mid 1970s when as a stone cold sober teenager, I was forced to watch my father try to work in an economy or culture that did not foster piano playing or owning, for that matter. I remember the first election I could vote, and in 1980, I was voting for Reagan. Yep. A very long memory. I would reckon that there are folks much older than me, with longer memories of the Carter years, whose experiences were even worse than my father’s.
Jewel on October 29, 2007 at 9:33 AM
Good one, Bryan.
Jaibones on October 29, 2007 at 9:35 AM
Bryan,
Great screencap for this post. At first I thought Jeff Dunham had released another puppet video….
Dave Shay on October 29, 2007 at 9:37 AM
If a Jimmy Carter movie tanks at the box office, that means my Warren G. Harding movie is in deep trouble.
Tantor on October 29, 2007 at 9:46 AM
I’d like to see an expose documentary based on The Real Jimmy Carter.
CP on October 29, 2007 at 9:51 AM
I always thought she seemed like a lovely, gracious Southern woman. But now I am convinced that she is either the power behind the throne, using him, or in some other way bad, for allowing her aged, addled husband to embarrass himself this way. If I ever go off the deep end, I hope my wonderful wife seals up the front door, and allows me out in the fenced-in yard.
JiangxiDad on October 29, 2007 at 9:58 AM
Meryl Yourish
How could you have forgotten the BBC
CommentGuy on October 29, 2007 at 10:01 AM
Demme: We’ll make our money back when it goes to DVD. Yeah! That’s the ticket.
pocomoco on October 29, 2007 at 10:13 AM
If it had been about Jimmah turning into a flesh-eating zombie while on his book tour…
kiakjones on October 29, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Slapping around Jimmy Carter is like picking low-hanging fruit, and boring too. Rather, I would like to summarize Carter with the criticism he never receives from the press — I accuse him of bad faith.
Jaibones on October 29, 2007 at 10:19 AM
Could it really have been as boring as his Talking Heads concert film?
mymanpotsandpans on October 29, 2007 at 10:23 AM
You are all being to hard on Carter, I don’t think it is his fault he is a moron, I think it has to do with the little men that flew the UFO.
abinitioadinfinitum on October 29, 2007 at 10:28 AM
You obviously don’t remember the aftermath of the 1980 campaign. When asked if Jimmah was bitter her response was that she was bitter enough for the both of them.
I think that bitterness has manifested itself into the recent attempts of Jimmah attempting to rekindle the idea that he is relevant in international affairs (after four years in office and 27 years after of spouting nothing but bad advice and anti-American positions). Make no mistake- the Jew-hating imbecile is the real Jimmy Carter. God have mercy on his soul.
highhopes on October 29, 2007 at 10:46 AM
I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I’ve actually read somewhere that Rosalyn Carter is even more mean spirited than Jimmy.
Dudley Smith on October 29, 2007 at 10:49 AM
Just another example of the vast right-wing audience conspiracy.
Dr. Charles G. Waugh on October 29, 2007 at 10:50 AM
I hear that Demme’s next project is about a young Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his favorite “Old Yeller” camel.
A heartbroken Mahmoud is forced to destroy the camel with an IED when it mysteriously contracts a STD.
Can’t wait!
heldmyw on October 29, 2007 at 10:53 AM
He obviously thought what Gore did for global warming he could do for Carter and those pesky joooooos. (make millions)
fryclint on October 29, 2007 at 11:26 AM
Good one, Bryan, and unfortunately, probably true. However, it is probably so boring it will be wasted as propaganda. The students will just sit there and roll eyes and take naps.
My college daughter is currently taking the last PC class needed to graduate. She has always scoured the choices, taking the one that’s the least offensive. I call it their last shot at indoctrination. She has told me how boring it is. I tell you, if I was a Leftist professor I would work hard at making my course the most interesting one on campus. But I digress…
INC on October 29, 2007 at 12:24 PM
I never liked Rosalyn Carter. Lovely name, mean-spirited woman.
And sanctimonious is always one of the first words that comes to mind when I think of Jimmy Carter, along with bitter, nasty, and traitorous.
INC on October 29, 2007 at 12:27 PM
Spokesman for Jonathan Demme: If moral, open-minded Americans hadn’t been elsewhere after spending all their money on posterboard, magic markers, Halloween masks and catsup, the seats would have been filled.
Dusty on October 29, 2007 at 1:17 PM
There was real misery in my family during the Carter years. The economy was in the toilet and my parents didn’t have enough money to pay the bills. The tension at times was unbearable.
Within the first couple of years of Reagan, everything was so much better. God bless Ronald Reagan and trickle down economics.
Kensington on October 29, 2007 at 2:17 PM
I smell OSCAR!
Sensei Ern on October 29, 2007 at 2:18 PM
America, you have let us down by not seeing our movies.
sulla on October 29, 2007 at 2:31 PM
Thousands of hard working Americans take the free time on thier weekends to build houses (misguidedly) for people who can’t get houses the normal way (working hard, saving and buying one). Those good hearted Americans are nameless and faceless. Jimmy Carter gets put on the board of directors of Habitat (which existed before his involvement)goes to worksites in a limo and has some photos taken and is annointed the best ex-president ever. Jimmy carter (and I capitalized jimmy only because it started the sentance)has never done anything good for America, the American people or the world.
peacenprosperity on October 29, 2007 at 2:37 PM
And by the way, Anwar Sadat instigated the peace process with Manachem Begin. Those two got the ball rolling and started working towards a settlement, carter stepped in and promised them billions of dollars (and perpetual cheap oil for Israel)if they continued thier dialogue in the US. Once and always a bandwagoner taking advantage of the situation. I hope he is not given a state funeral when he goes.
peacenprosperity on October 29, 2007 at 2:40 PM
And finally, at the lead up to the first gulf war, carter was writing letters to everyone Pres. Bush was trying to get on board to oppose the action. The US government had no idea he was doing it until Brian Mulroney got his letter and called Bush to tell him what carter was doing. The louse would never do anything like that to any of his dictator buddies. Since ex-presidents are generally kept informed of major foreign policy moves, makes you wonder what other letters or phone calls cater made over the years.
peacenprosperity on October 29, 2007 at 2:44 PM
Or it will be a double-disc collector’s edition special directors cut DVD!
ToddonCapeCod on October 29, 2007 at 5:47 PM
He should re-title it The Life and Times of Jimmy Peanuts.
Guaranteed Pulitzer.
RMR on October 29, 2007 at 7:39 PM
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