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December 19, 2016

Boos for Hollywood: More Americans Bought Guns on Black Friday than Saw ‘Miss Sloane’ on Opening Weekend


miss_sloaneOn Dec. 9, the anti-gun message film “Miss Sloane” was released in 1,648 theatres nationwide — released yes, watched not so much. “Miss Sloane” opened as the 11th watched film of the weekend and took in only $1.8 million in its opening week, making it the 75th worst performing movie release of all time. This past weekend, it tumbled to the 16th most watched movie and was dropped from 185 screens compared to the previous weekend.

Yet again, Hollywood liberal elite missed the mark with what Americans consider entertainment, producing a propaganda film for The Brady Campaign while ignoring the fact that nearly 52% of Americans believe protecting the Second Amendment is more important than gun control.

The ignorance of the anti-gun left is even more ironic when you consider that data indicates that more Americans bought guns on Black Friday than saw “Miss Sloane” in its opening weekend. According to the FBI, they processed 185,713 gun background checks on Black Friday through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) — a record high for the day. Now let’s do some math…

The average price of a movie ticket in the United States is $8.61, so if you divide “Miss Sloane’s” exact opening weekend numbers ($1,844,972) by $8.61, you can assume that 214,282 people saw the movie. However, we must consider the fact that “Miss Sloane’s” target audience resides in urban areas, and the film was only released in “select cities,” where the average ticket prices are higher. Factoring in the average ticket cost in New York City, N.Y. ($14.30), Washington, D.C. ($13.00), and Los Angeles, Calif. ($13.00), the new average becomes $12.22 — meaning that only 150,980 likely saw “Miss Sloane” on its opening weekend, a whopping 34,733 people less than purchased a gun on Black Friday.

The numbers only get worse for the film’s backers. Production costs for “Miss Sloane” are reported to be in the range of $13 million, so at this point the movie’s producers have a long way to go before even breaking even on their costs. Only time will tell if “Miss Sloane” will make a surprise comeback after two weekends of poor box office performance, but it’s unlikely given its lackluster reviews.

The film was in production for months before Election Day, of course, so its producer may have thought that it would serve as inspiration for the gun control lobby to follow post-election. So the film’s abysmal performance is likely only one of the surprises its backers have had to stomach since Election Day. Maybe next time, Hollywood should wait to let the voters speak and then consider their audience before the next $13 million flop. There is such a thing as going straight to DVD.

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Tags: Black Friday FBI Gun Purchases Hollywood Miss Sloane NICS NSSF

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