37 pointsby zzzeek3 hours ago5 comments
  • dmix3 hours ago
    Gizmodo has a better article

    > Its limited four-theater release in New York and Los Angeles on October 9 had a respectable opening weekend gross—each screen earning an average of $17,225 for a $68,900 total. Expanding to more theaters in more markets was the logical next step, which its distributor Bleeker Street Films did last Friday, raising the number of screens to 472. But Musk’s wider-debut was an unmitigated flop, netting a paltry $614 per screen, for an abysmal second weekend total of $290,000. Box Office Mojo has the film’s to-date total up to $571,902, as of this article’s publication.

    https://gizmodo.com/it-seems-like-the-critical-musk-doc-just...

    The article also questions this showbiz411 article

    > Showbiz411’s post claims the doc is “gone from almost every theater in America,” save “one or two odd places that didn’t get the memo.” It attempts to substantiate its case by saying the list of theaters on Bleeker Street’s website for Musk showtimes “shows that all 472 were listed as playing the movie today. But no more.” There’s no elaboration as to what that means. The only sort of receipt we’re offered is a blurry, unzoomable screenshot below of… the list of theaters showing the doc prior to the purported change.

    > The blog also has an unsourced line that “online, people started commenting earlier this week that shows they’d bought tickets for were canceled without warning.” I was able to find a Reddit post backing that up. But no other outlet of good or ill repute is saying Musk’s been pulled.

    • joegibbsan hour ago
      I wouldn’t be surprised if cinemas are canceling tickets if there are only one or two people booking a screening. May as well show something people want to see.
  • tkcranny3 hours ago
    Gotta give a thumbs down to the reporting here. At no point did it explain _why_ it’s disappearing. I was curious, and after reading it I still am. Did it catastrophically flop so the cinemas are ditching screenings? Is the mention of some small cinemas “not getting the memo” just a turn of phrase or is there some distributor/studios/licensing thing killing it?
    • orangecat2 hours ago
      Did it catastrophically flop so the cinemas are ditching screenings?

      Yes. This story is a perfect example of being deceptive while not saying anything that's false. They conveniently leave out the abysmal revenue numbers, hoping readers will assume it was due to censorship or threats.

  • silverFork2 hours ago
    Between Melania and Musk, which one would go to see?
  • hlieberman3 hours ago
    Ah, censorship.
    • teddyh3 hours ago
      Well, no, I frequently hear, especially from Americans, that unless it’s government action, then it’s not “censorship”, but “consequences”.
      • bediger400037 minutes ago
        You see, you're not listening to the "free speech absolutists". And they're not speaking up about this issue.
    • johnnyApplePRNG3 hours ago
      HN censored this post, eh? It's "vanished" from the entire list... less than 30 minutes after posting... interesting.
  • mjmsmith3 hours ago
    I can believe that this film would have trouble finding an audience.

    On the one hand, I'm a huge fan of Alex Gibney's documentaries and I would normally be enthusiastic about a new film. On the other hand, I find Elon Musk utterly loathsome and, more importantly, completely uninteresting beyond his loathsomeness. I just can't work up any desire to spend a few hours with the man.

    Compare this with You Can See Everything. I think Elizabeth Holmes is a fraud, but at least she's an interesting fraud.

    [Hmmm, this was briefly flagged/dead?]

    • sjdh762 hours ago
      Maybe its a good thing, if people loose interest in such folk. A sort of fatigue can set in I guess. A never ending stream of loathsome people, seem to have been propped up by the Attention Economy. Provoking others gets Attention. Also why Musk got worried and had to buy a platform when there was a threat to being blocked from getting Attention. But maybe the system has some upper limit.