Michael Moore's Anti-Americanism Doesn't Always Sell Overseas

This week, as the buildup to the upcoming movie “G.I. Joe” continues, the L.A. Times claimed that…

Yet overseas, where big action films often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales, rah-rah American sentiment doesn’t play well. So those references have vanished from the advertising.

Big Hollywood’s John Nolte gave that theory a thorough fisking, providing numbers showing that while “rah-rah America” movies aren’t guaranteed big foreign box-office returns, they aren’t automatically guaranteed to fail. He also points out that many “anti-rah rah” movies have even less appeal.

Oh, is it still okay to say “foreign?” Just checking, seeing as many schools are replacing “foreign language” departments with World Language departments. We’re all just one, big, happy World Family, right?

Okay, back to the topic at hand. John’s post got me to thinking. If anti-war movies such as “Rendition” and “A Mighty Heart,” despite the hype and the A-list star roster didn’t bring in the beaucoup bucks, how about anti-American movies made by one of the biggest anti-Americans on the planet, Michael Moore?

Moore has made a career bashing everything essentially American while reaping the benefits of living in the (for now) freest nation on earth. As we “all know” how much Europeans despise Americans, it’s almost a given that Moore’s films would break all foreign – oops, world box office records. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Roger & Me: $1,000,000

Bowling for Columbine: $36,432,405

Fahrenheit 9/11: $103,252,111

Sicko: $11,515,086

Let’s cut MM some slack with “Roger and Me” – he was hardly a brand name in America at that time, let alone anywhere else. He starts to inch up the scale with “Bowling for Columbine.” The Columbine killings made headlines around the world, and naturally Euros were eager to know all about the curious American fascination with firearms – and of course, these things never happen over there, right?

Moving on to “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore was at the top of his game. The movie garnered an Academy Award and took the top prize at Cannes – yet it only took in $103,252,11 overseas. Come on, I thought everyone hated Bush and his crummy war – which is now Obama’s war, so it’s okay. Even “National Treasure,” starring the not-so-versatile Nicolas Cage, did better.But, my stars – domestic box office for “Fahrenheit 9/11” was only $119, 194,771. Don’t people know quality filmmaking when they are told about it by their Hollywood betters?

Then, numbers for “Sicko,” considering Moore’s er, hefty star power, plummeted. Either foreign, I mean, worldmoviegoers were turned off by the sight of Moore putting on a rubber glove for that anal probe, or they knew from personal experience that his love fest for socialized health care ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Or perhaps Europeans have figured out that Moore is a master of manipulation and don’t like being played.

So if the biggest “anti-rah rah” movie maker can’t match the overseas numbers (or even the domestic ones) of the likes of the films John points out, and some he didn’t point out, like “Iron man,” what’s the anti-American left in Hollywood to do?

Why, make another anti-American film, of course! Or in this case, a film that pretty much trashes everything that makes Western civilization tick. Moore’s next project, due out in October, is entitled “Capitalism: A Love Story.” According to Moore:

It will be the perfect date movie. It’s got it all – lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It’s a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let’s just say it: It’s capitalism.” And, the movie focuses on “the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world.

Does that mean we get to see it for free? I doubt it – Moore has his stock portfolio, Manhattan penthouse and ten-acre Michigan waterfront estateto worry about. Just an everyday schlub like you and me, trying to pay the bills in an unjust world. The ever-present baseball cap says it all. And no, he’s not even hiding an embarrassing bald pate like Ron Howard.

As the Brits would say, Mike’s dead chuffed at the fact that GM is now in the hands of the government. I can’t wait to see him put his money where his mouth is, and drive one of those little PUMAs we’ve heard so much about.

You know, considering how recent elections all over Europe showed a decided tilt to the right, I wonder how well MM’s new movie will do? We’ll have to wait and see.