Ed. Note: Please welcome Lee Stranahan to Big Hollywood. This is actually his second piece for us, but things were a little hectic last time and things got away from me. It’s an honor to have him as part of the BH family and I very much encourage you to seek out his superb work ast the other BIG sites. –JN

No, I still haven’t seen it but the business side of Atlas Shrugged is of interest to me as a filmmaker, political writer and former Objectivist. Plus my friend Andrew Breitbart and my ex-wife Kat are both in movie – in the same scene. (Kat is wearing pink, Breitbart isn’t.)

Some people – like liberal blogger and (former?) friend Bob Cesca – want to say it’s doing very badly. This is from his subtly titled post Nobody Likes Atlas Shrugged.

Did you know there’s a movie version of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged?

No? Well, you’re not alone. The first part of a trilogy (!!!) based on Ayn Rand’s libertarian bible was released in limited theaters on Friday and it currently has an 8 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s really awful.

And the reviews are generally bad. Some are sort of mixed, like this one by Kyle Smith from the New York Post…

Though a bit stiff in the joints and acted by an undistinguished cast amid TV-movie trappings, this low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel nevertheless contains a fire and a fury that makes it more compelling than the average mass-produced studio item.

The low-budget / casting angle comes up in many reviews and I certainly raised them myself. But the original reviews of Atlas Shrugged were…well, awful. Really awful. And not all the data is that negative. On IMDB right now it has a kind of okay 6.8 rating. And on Box Office Mojo, it’s got a solid B with 74% giving it an A.

Criticism is all opinion, however. How did it do business wise?

Box Office Mojo’s Brandon Gray wrote a glass-half-empty piece…

Atlas Shrugged: Part I was the top-grossing limited release of the weekend, generating an estimated $1.7 million at 300 single-screen locations.

For a pure independent release, Atlas Shrugged: Part I‘s opening was fine. But for the first-ever adaptation of Ayn Rand’s influential mega-selling 1957 novel that had far more media hype than any other independent movie could dream of, it was disappointing.

(snip)

Boosters of Atlas Shrugged: Part I might point to the movie’s per theater average to spin it as a success (ex. “it did almost as much per theater as Scream 4!”), but spin is all it is. It’s a common ploy to cling to per-theater average to rationalize a soft run. Obviously, it’s generally easier for a small release to have a higher per-theater average than one at over 3,000 theaters (at any rate, Scream 4 was a disappointment itself).

If the people behind Atlas Shrugged: Part I claim success, they are invited to reveal the capacity the movie played to at each theater. If the movie only had screens with tiny capacities and sold a high percentage of the available seats, then that would be a legitimate positive point to latch onto.

Finally, anecdotes – I spoke to a few people who saw the film. They said there were good 7 o’clock crowds and a lot of enthusiasm. Repeat business could be a factor. If business only shrinks by 20% the second week or if they expand theaters, the film could make back a decent amount of the reported $10,000,000 budget on US theatrical. I don’t expect foreign to do much but the film could do well on DVD and should get a cable buy as well.

So will there be a Part 2? ‘I’m leaning towards a yes but I actually think the smart move for investors is to give Part 2 MORE money than they gave Part 1. That may answer some of the ‘low budget’ criticism that Part 1 is enduring.