Tim Blair writes:
Consider the tragic environmental cost:
I had a strange experience on Monday. I went to see Al Gore's slide show, as he affectionately refers to An Inconvenient Truth, his exposé on global warming.
For the first time in my life, I was the only person in the cinema. I sat there for two hours, watching the advertisements, the promos and the feature itself. There was air conditioning, lighting and a projectionist, possibly, and an usher who opened the doors when the session was over, and asked me if I enjoyed the movie.
Given how wrong Blair was with his repeated pronouncements that Gore's movie was doing badly at the box office, this can only mean one thing: An Inconvenient Truth is succeeding in Australia as well. And sure enough, it is.
To compare performances of movies between Australia and the US, you need to account for differences in population, ticket prices, cinema visits per head and currencies. The usual conversion factor is to divide the US$ box office by 10 to get the AUS$ box office.
In the US, An Inconvenient Truth was a big success, taking $US23,800,000, the third highest total of all time for a documentary. In Australia it's doing ever better -- it's already earned $AUS3,100,000 and it's still going strong.
What is even his point here. Is he saying that no-one's going to see An Inconvenient Truth therefore global warming isn't happening? Is he trying to imply a kind of cinema market democratic process in which "the people" have made some kind of judgment about global warming scientifically or politically? Is he trying to use this cinema democracy to legitimize his own views? If so, then that's really lame, and in any case, "the people" have spoken on the issue, as the recent Lowy Institute polling shows. He is his own audience of one.
For the first time in my life, I was the only person in the cinema. [linky added]
In the same vein as: "Snow in June. Therefore there's no global warming, no sir!!!"
Tim, I say you should expand on your GWS Bingo game and make some sort of matrix for matching a GW skeptic to a cartoon character.
Best,
D
Depends on how you measure success, 'Kenny' is doing well at $6.08M but they all pale into significance alongside 'The Devil Wears Prada' at $14.78M
"..into insignificance .."
Which therefore proves that all women are monstrous magazine editors.
... and that denim isn't really happening.
Hmmm, doen't that go...For the first time in my life I was the only person in the cinema, and enjoying myself in ways momma would not approve, when this beautiful blonde sat down next to me.....
Funny, first movie of my life I ever saw as the only person in the theater was The Iron Giant. Essentially a private showing of one of the greatest american cartoons of all time.
Of course, the fact that I was watching it at noon on Wednesday the first week of school may have had something to do with it too.
Maybe Blair was so eager to watch the film that he was the first to arrive, so that - strictly speaking - there was a short period of time when he really was "the only person in the cinema".
For numbers of punters, you have to divide by ten or twelve. So about 300,000 people have seen it in an Australian cinema. By running it on the ABC, we could add maybe another seven hundred thousand.
That's funny, it's "biassed" and an "opinion".
Tsk tsk, too naughty for a national broadcaster.
Maybe we could fund Tim Blair on the taxpayer to make the 'why scientists are stupid" film which disproves global warming.
Do you think it would have an audience?
oh... when he said that he "went to see Al Gore's slide show" I initially assumed he meant he'd seen Al Gore's actual lecture, rather than the movie of it. Whatever.
As it happens, Al was here in Portland, Oregon on October 24th doing his lecture. It was at the Rose Garden in downtown Portland, set up in what they call the "Theater of the Clouds" configuration, which seats 6,000.
It was a sellout.
And I have to say, it was *brilliant*. Aside from the content of the lecture, which I guess I don't have to describe, it was a stunning demonstration of how to speak in public to a large crowd. If you get the chance to actually see Al give his lecture in person, go - don't even give it a second thought. You won't be sorry you did.
Sorry for being off topic Tim, but do you mind if I borrow your pinata?
MM wave:
Same thing in Seattle (the day before yours), over 7000 here to see it. Fantastic talk.
Best,
D