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Bill Maher Kicks Zucker's Conservative Ass at the Box Office
I'll put on my Hollywood hat just for a minute so I can lead a chorus of righteous laughter at the colossal failure of the persecuted Hollywood conservatives behind An American Carol.
Here's how it fared over the weekend, when stacked up against Bill Maher's Religulous:
| Film | Box Office Gross | # Screens | Average |
| American Carol | $3,810,000 | 1,639 | $2,325 |
| Religulous | $3,500,000 | 502 | $6,972 |
Note that Religulous, however, was on less than one third of the screens that American Carol was. Which means that An American Carol should by all rights have done three times the boxoffice of Religulous. But it didn't -- gross box office receipts were largely the same.
The per-screen average of Religulous was three times that of An American Carol. Three times as many people showed up in each theater to see it.
As Atrios notes, there's no way that the wingnuts can argue that their humor free comedy didn't get a good push.
Bottom line: Hollywood is in the business of making money. There's no conspiracy going on against conservatives. When moviegoers have to vote with their dollars, it's just that nobody wants to see their shit.
Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.
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