Movie ticket sales company FANDANGO is reporting that the movie ATLAS SHRUGGED has the 3rd highest number of tickets pre-sold of any movie in history. This is pretty amazing given several factors.
- ATLAS SHRUGGED is only showing in about 10% of the major movie theaters nationwide.
- A small independent producer made the movie.
- ATLAS SHRUGGED has no big name stars, in fact it has no stars but rather used TV actors and actresses.
- The movie was made on a tiny (by Hollywood standards) budget of only $20 Million.
- Professional movie critics hate the movie, but individuals who have seen it overwhelmingly like the movie.
WALL STREET JOURNAL article => http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/04/15/will-conservatives-make-atlas-shrugged-a-hit/
Rotten Tomatoes lists more than 5,000 user ratings with a total of 86% saying they “like it,” while the critics’ average is a disastrous 7%.
. . .
According to Kaslow, the second and third parts of the film are in the active planning stages, with the second part scheduled to go into production this June for release on April 15, 2012, and the third to follow the same timeline the following year. “The green light decision is ultimately John’s,” says Kaslow. “If we learn there is no commercial interest in the film, I doubt there will be a second or third one. But at this point, we’re the third most ticketed film on Fandango, so I don’t have any reason to believe that we won’t be successful.”