Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
In spite of its low budget, a limited number of screens, an unexpected R rating, and the suspicious last- minute suspension of its Twitter account, the pro-life biopic, Unplanned, had a spectacular opening weekend at the box office, making it into the top five films.
Box Office Mojo is reporting that Unplanned brought in $6,110,000 this weekend after showing in 1,059 theaters. The average gross per theater was $5,770 which managed to beat Captain Marvel that had only $5,134 per its 3,985 theaters. These numbers are less than half of what was expected of the film.
Based on the story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who left the abortion business and became pro-life, the movie has triumphed over numerous obstacles. Not only was it handed an unexpected R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, and various TV networks refused to air its ads, the movie’s Twitter account was suddenly suspended on Saturday.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Twitter executives claimed it wasn’t done on purpose and said the account was suspended only because it was linked to another account that violated Twitter’s rules. After a review, they decided to reinstate it.
However, as of Sunday evening, Twitter users were still unable to follow the movie. The Daily Wire is reporting on user complaints from a host of pro-life leaders such as Lila Rose who complained that the account dropped from 179K followers to just 25.5K in an hour on Sunday. “What’s going on @Jack @Twitter” she demanded.
Actress Patricia Heaton tweeted: “Hey @jack – why aren’t you letting me follow @UnplannedMovie ? I’ve tried eight times to support my friend @AbbyJohnson and @Twitter won’t let me. Others are having the same issue. Please correct this. Thank you.”
Dan Gainor, VP of the media watchdog, NewsBusters, was equally outraged: “What @Twitter is doing now is deliberately aimed at hurting @UnplannedMovie. I hope lawyers go after them. Eh @pnjaban? I’d love to see @jack cope with a few million documents worth of discovery.”
However, in spite of being pitted against the formidable culture of death – which worships at the altar of Planned Parenthood – Unplanned sailed to victory. It made back the $6 million it cost to produce the movie in just the first weekend, and the reviews are stellar. It scored a whopping 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and earned an A+ rating from CinemaScore.
“We are very happy for the success of this film,” said PureFlix CEO Michael Scott in a statement. “To bring the story of Abby Johnson to audiences and have them show up in such large numbers shows how the topic of abortion is so important to bring to audiences. We hope that those on both sides of the debate will see Unplanned and begin to have their own dialogue. This film can be that spark to bring more hearts and minds to understanding the value of life.”
Let’s keep the momentum going! If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to find a theater near you!
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