'Unplanned' Audience Score Soars Above That of Big-Budget 'Dumbo' Reboot
Movie-goers who saw the box-office success “Unplanned” liked what they saw, leaving them in a different mood than those who went for the remake of the classic “Dumbo.”
The website Rotten Tomatoes scores films based on what audiences say was worth watching or a waste of time. According to the site, 94 percent of the viewers who saw “Unplanned” liked the film.
However, when it came to Dumbo, only 60 percent liked it. That could be fiscal trouble for the remake, because “Dumbo” cost $170 million to produce but has taken in barely a third of its costs.
“Unplanned,” a strong pro-life film, cracked the top five for the weekend. Despite being in only 1,059 theaters, it garnered $6.1 million in receipts, Fox News reported.
“We are thrilled, gratified and humbled,” co-directors Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman said Sunday in a statement.
“We are so pleased that the American people have responded with such an enormous outpouring of support at the box office. It humbles us and we look forward to seeing what happens in the weeks ahead,” they said.
The film tells the story of Abby Johnson, who worked at Planned Parenthood for eight years before becoming a pro-life activist.
“It’s a very vulnerable place to sort of expose some of your greatest wounds and hurts to the public, but in the end, this film’s really not about me. I didn’t do this so Abby Johnson would be a household name. I did this so God’s redemption — that would be known in every household,” she said in an interview with CBN.
Actress Ashley Bratcher, who plays Johnson in the film, said the response to the film shows that its risks were worth taking.
“I am blown away by the public response to ‘Unplanned’ as well as the box office numbers. Not only is it beyond my wildest dreams, but it has surpassed the expectations of critics across the country.
“Despite biased critic reviews written more like op-eds, the audience has spoken. I just learned that ‘Unplanned’ received a coveted A+ CinemaScore. While that is truly an honor, the most rewarding thing about this weekend’s opening is the flood of messages I’ve received from people experiencing healing and a change of heart,” she said, according to christiannewswire.com.
Bratcher shared the backstory of a scene in which Johnson took an abortion pill.
“I like to go into a room that I’m going to perform in, especially if it’s supposed to be my bedroom or bathroom before the scene starts so that I know where my stuff is because I would in real life. And I remember walking into that room for the first time — just myself — no one else around and wanting to lay on the floor and cry because I could just feel the presence of God so strongly,” she said.
“It was like our prayer team had just been walking that set. They knew how critical this scene in particular was and they had been walking through it and praying all over it, and I had done tons of research and I knew what the physical impediment was going to have to entail. So that when it got into the moment, I could really just try my hardest to emotionally think what she must have been thinking in feeling like she was going to die from that,” she said.
Solomon and Konzelman, who wrote the movie, alleged that it was slapped with an R rating out of politics.
“Hollywood is about politics. It’s not about making movies,” Solomon said. “It’s sad. It’s about propaganda with Hollywood. And we are pro-life guys in a pro-choice town. And so, we are not liked, and our movie is not going to be liked. So, to expect that they would give us a fair rating, ok, not going to happen. And so, we kind of knew that. We wished for the best, understood that the worst could possibly happen. When we got the R, didn’t surprise us.”
“I live in a country where my daughter can go out at 13, she can get an abortion without parental consent, but she can’t go see this movie,” Konzelman said.
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