Obama's America Overtakes Michael Moore Films To Become #2 Political Documentary

By ABS Contributor | Published on September 9, 2012

Comments (0) Add ABS as a preferred source on Google i

Dinesh D’Souza’s 2016: Obama’s America has grossed over $26.2M, passing three of Michael Moore’s top political documentaries to become the #2 highest-grossing political documentary film of all time.

Only one of Moore’s films was able to escape the surge of the right-wing documentary. Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, which was a highly critical examination of President George W Bush’s first term, remained at the #1 spot with $119.1M.

Obama’s America probably has no chance of making even half that, but the film has out earned Moore’s Sicko (2007 – $24.5M), Oscar-winner Bowling For Columbine (2002 – $21.5M), and Capitalism: A Love Story (2009 – $14.3M). Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006 – $24.1M) also fell with the rise of Obama’s America, which also beat out Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008 – $7.7M) to become the #1 largest-grossing conservative political documentary ever.

2016: Obama’s America is based on conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s 2010 best-selling book “The Roots Of Obama’s Rage.” The film initially opened in only one theater in Houston on July 13th, then expanded to over 2,000 locations since this past Friday. D’Souza co-directed the film with John Sullivan and it was produced by Academy Award winner Gerald R. Molen (co-producer of Schindler’s List).

The ABS Newsletter — Stories that matter, in your inbox.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way