Incendiary 'Fahrenheit' Is No Box Office Bomb

The film packed theaters in Washington, where most evening shows were sold out. Bob Zich of the Avalon Theatre said he wasn't sure of the politics of the moviegoers but guessed that "most of them probably knew about the notoriety of the film" and that they were "probably mostly Democratic partisans."

Matt Cowal, marketing manager for Landmark Theatres in Washington, said the movie is doing "phenomenally well" at his chain's downtown and Bethesda complexes. Most evening shows have been sold out and some audiences have been cheering during the movie, he said.

The screenings yesterday afternoon at the Loews Georgetown were sold out. Dozens of people milled about on the front steps, waiting an hour or more for the next available showing.

Jim Lenihan, 23, a recent Georgetown University graduate, had switched to an evening screening because the afternoon show he planned to see had sold out before all his friends had bought tickets. "I think he [Michael Moore] is very good at expressing his opinion through facts," said the Detroit native, who said he has seen every Moore movie since 1989's "Roger & Me." "But sometimes he slants his information and he misleads, which is the same accusation he makes against Bush."

Anthony Branch, 29, a bartender, said the movie helped him better understand "what's really going on. . . . I feel he [Bush] just lied about everything."

Jim Welsh, 65, drove more than 120 miles from his home in Salisbury, Md., to see the movie. The editor of a film and literature magazine, Welsh said, "I'd like to see for myself Mr. Moore's methods and message, unlike those right-wing people who will trash it without having a clue what it involves."

Kitty Dana, 48, said she cried through two-thirds of it. "It was incredibly moving, not just satirical," said Dana, who works for the American Friends Service Committee, an antiwar group.

"It says a little about American arrogance and power," said Chandra Pant, 51, of Delhi, India, who was visiting the Danas.

Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel had no comment on the box office numbers, but suggested that those wanting another view visit www.GeorgeWBush.com and see a compilation of clips titled "Kerry Coalition of the Wild-Eyed." In general, the campaign has said it did not want to take on Moore because it would lend him credibility.

Moore made no apologies for his partisanship. "Documentaries by their very nature are supposed to have a point of view," he said during the conference call. He calls his documentary "an op-ed piece -- it presents my opinion based on fact." He said he believes the movie is playing strongly in Middle America, and that it has confounded theories that "it would only speak to the choir."

"The documentary filmgoing audience is not that large. . . . I would imagine tens of thousands of people came this weekend who had never been to a documentary in a movie theater in their lives," says Moore.

The distributors say they plan to add a couple of hundred theaters this coming weekend, and additional theaters the following weekend. By then the competition will include one of the summer's anticipated blockbusters, "Spider-Man 2."

"We look forward to joining with 'Spider-Man' to bringing truth and justice all across America," Moore said.

Staff writers Lila Arzua and Bob Thompson contributed to this report.