Saturday, November 21, 2009

Opening on about half the screens of other top 10 movies, "Expelled," Ben Stein's documentary on academia's censorship of any ideas hinting of intelligent design, scored an impressive $3.2 million in its opening weekend – more than all but eight other movies.

"Expelled" rolled out in 1,052 theaters, compared with 3,151 for the top grosser, "The Forbidden Kingdom."

The movie, promoted heavily in conservative and Christian circles throughout the U.S., performed much better than the weekend's other new current-affairs documentary, "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?" That movie, the second feature from "Super Size Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, banked a mere $143,299 in 102 locations, for a terrible $1,405 average. "Expelled" brought in nearly $3,000 per screen.

Related offers:

Ken Ham's "The Lie: Evolution"

"Thousands... not Billions: Challenging an Icon of Evolution Questioning the Age of the Earth"

"In Six Days"

"Biblical Creationism"

"Scientific Creationism"

"The Case Against Darwin"

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'Expelled' makers go on offensive against 'thought police'