Celsius 41.11 - Theatrical Release

Theatrical Release

Citizens United were prohibited by the Federal Elections Commission from advertising the movie on television or funding the broadcast of the movie on television during the 60-days prior to the election when restrictions apply to political broadcasts by outside organizations. The premiere of Celsius 41.11 took place at the Loews theatre in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) on September 28, 2004 and was attended by the author Jerome Corsi and the sister of the pilot whose plane crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, Debra Burlingame. Celsius 41.11 was also shown at the first Liberty Film Festival. Both Lions Gate Entertainment (the distributors of Fahrenheit 9/11) and Fox Searchlight (which specialises in the distribution of independent films) declined the opportunity to distribute the film to cinemas. David Bossie, the film's executive producer, believed that the distributors rejected the film on ideological grounds, whilst Lionel Chetwynd and Ted Steinberg felt that the close proximity of the election which gave the film an abnormally short shelf-life put the distributors off. Celsius 41.11 was eventually self-distributed by Citizens United. It was screened in 116 cinemas on its opening weekend and had a three week theatrical run. Although the film was popular in conservative areas, on average box office takings were below those for comparible left-leaning political documentaries such as Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. Lionel Chetwynd suggested that the low audiences were due to the film's late release date with respect to the 2004 United States Presidential campaign adding that opening on the same weekend as the World Series may have compounded the problem. Citizens United subsequently printed 200,000 DVDs of the film, many of which were given to its supporters.