Even with the entire establishment plotting to assassinate Unplanned in the crib, the pro-life movie not only earned $6 million in its debut weekend, it topped Captain Marvel’s per screen average.
The “professionals” estimated Pure Flix’s latest faith-based film, a film that dares to argue a non-left-wing point of view, a film that dares to question the ethics of abortion and the industry getting rich off of it, would open at $3 million in 1,059 theaters — the estimates were wrong.
Unplanned landed in fifth place with a $6.1 million haul.
What’s more, with a per-screen average of $5,770, it also came in fifth place in that category, topping Captain Marvel’s per-screen by about $650.
In other words, per screen, the $6 million-budgeted Unplanned filled more seats than a Marvel movie only in its fourth week of release, a Marvel movie with a production and advertising budget that probably topped $250 million.
What makes this box office success even more miraculous is how the establishment media, the entertainment business, and Silicon Valley conspired to abort Unplanned in the womb.
To begin with, the MPAA slapped it with an R-rating, which undoubtedly hurt the box office — as it was meant to. When Drag Me to Hell earns a PG-13, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how the game is rigged.
Then, numerous establishment media outlets — Lifetime, A&E, Travel Channel, Cooking Channel, HGTV, Food Network, Hallmark Channel, USA — all refused to run paid advertising for Unplanned using the excuse about the “sensitive nature” of the movie.
“Most of the networks didn’t go into detail beyond citing the subject matter of the film and that they didn’t want to get into politics. But we don’t believe we’re in the political category,” said Joe Knopp, an Unplanned producer told the Hollywood Reporter.
Anyone who has seen all the left-wing sleaze pumped out of the cable TV knows exactly what this is — a coordinated blacklisting of an “unapproved” political opinion hidden behind the lie about not wanting to get into politics.
The movie was also blacklisted by music rights holders during production.
What’s more, over the weekend — the movie’s all-important debut weekend — Twitter blacklisted the Unplanned’s Twitter account. For a while, the account was actually suspended. After the suspension was finally lifted, people were not allowed to follow the movie on Twitter, including U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, who filmed the sabotage:
Twitter will claim this was a mistake, but as we all know, these so-called mistakes never happen to the political left.
Unplanned tells the true story of Abby Hoffman, a former Employee of the Month at Planned Parenthood who resigns and becomes a pro-life activist after witnessing an actual abortion.
The establishment’s hatred and outright fear of this (or any) alternate point of view receiving a serious cinematic treatment is best summed up in Owen Gleiberman’s biased and bubbled Variety review, where he seriously blames pro-life protesters for an abortion clinic refusing to call an ambulance after a botched abortion: [emphasis added]
This is followed by the queasy moral horror Abby feels when a high-school girl, brought into the clinic by her father, experiences severe bleeding and other complications, and the head of the clinic, the take-no-prisoners women’s-rights activist Cheryl (Robia Scott), refuses to call an ambulance. That’s because the protesters would see — and potentially film — the ambulance, and it would therefore hurt the cause.
Clearly, for a health clinic to refuse appropriate medical care to anyone is indefensible. Yet the directors of “Unplanned,” Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, seem immune to the fact that Cheryl’s dastardly motivation — she’s loathe to do anything that could help the other side — wouldn’t be there in the first place if the legal right to abortion weren’t on such thin ice. Do the protesters share any culpability?
Yes, the protesters are responsible for botched abortions, for a corporate monster who puts public relations ahead of a woman’s life; just like those who protest the tobacco industry are responsible for cigarette manufacturers lying about nicotine addiction; just like environmental protesters are responsible when an oil company covers up a spill…
Can’t you see the Gleiberman’s logic? If people would just stop exercising their First Amendment rights, big corporations like Planned Parenthood could start doing the right thing.
If the childish Glieiberman wants to debate the issue of abortion or serve as Planned Parenthood’s bagman, that’s his right, but there’s a place for that and it’s not in a movie review.
Regardless, Unplanned earned an incredible A+ Cinemascore rating from those who saw the movie, which means it is probably going to be around for a while.
Even better, Unplanned’s success is yet more proof that the fascist establishment no longer has the ability to control the flow of information or shape public opinion.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.