Doctor, My Box Office is Broken

David Weigel | July 9, 2007

Roger Hickey argues that SiCKO is "building a movement."

Now breaking box office records in its second week in theaters, SiCKO conveys powerfully emotional stories of Americans trapped in a system controlled by insurance and drug companies that deny care and destroy lives in order to maintain their profits.

Except... it's not breaking any records. None at all. It came in 9th at the box office this weekend and made less money than last weekend despite expanding from 441 to 702 screens. Its per-screen average was $5,199. Not awful, but not as good as Rescue Dawn, Transformers, or Joshua, and only marginally better than Live Free or Die Hard. It's only the 8th highest-grossing documentary of all time, and the way things are going it's unlikely it'll do more than knock Madonna: Truth or Dare out of the 5th spot. Adjust for inflation and it wouldn't even do that.

Michael C. Moynihan gave SiCKO a pan in our pages. Last week I noticed that the movie was stiffing rather badly.