Where was the premier of America: Imagine the World Without Her held?
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D'Souza released the trailer for "America: Imagine the World Without Her" on , 2014. He later screened the trailer to at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC on , 2014. The filmmakers hired Christian marketing firms to create a sermon, replete with video clips, based on the documentary, and make it available for download. "The Hollywood Reporter" said on , 2014 that over 1,000 preachers had downloaded the sermon and that insiders expected the number to reach 5,000 before the film's release. The filmmakers also emailed 120,000 evangelical churches asking them to promote the film and hired the company Faithit.com to contact 80,000 Christian consumers. In the following July, D'Souza and fellow filmmaker Bruce Schooley traveled to the state of Texas to promote the documentary on radio and television programs owned by Glenn Beck.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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Lions Gate Entertainment released "America" in three theaters on June 27, 2014 and expanded its distribution on the weekend of the U.S. holiday Independence Day on July 4, 2014. CinemaScore reported that the opening-weekend audiences gave the film an "A+" grade. The film grossed , which made it the highest-grossing documentary in the United States in 2014.
Dinesh D'Souza
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Lionsgate, which handled home entertainment distribution for D'Souza's previous film "", acquired rights to distribute "America: Imagine the World Without Her" in theaters in the United States. Historically, it distributed in theaters two political documentaries, "Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004) and "Religulous" (2008). The UK-based Manifest Film Sales acquired rights to distribute "America" outside the United States with the goal of screening the documentary at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, but the screening did not take place.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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Since "America: Imagine the World Without Her" and its predecessor "2016: Obama's America" share "America" in their titles, several film websites, including Rotten Tomatoes, Yahoo! Movies, and MovieTickets.com, had difficulty presenting results for the newer documentary. While these websites resolved the results, the filmmakers contacted the search engine Google to complain about a lack of immediate search results pertaining to the documentary. Other results, including "2016: Obama's America" and "" and "", were being shown instead. They expressed concern that a lack of results, including showtimes, would affect the documentary's gross. D'Souza claimed that the lack of search results was politically motivated on Google's part. A preliminary fix stopped listing results for either of D'Souza's documentaries. Google said the term "America" being common in film titles prevented specific results, and it updated its Knowledge Graph to show results for the 2014 documentary.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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"America: Imagine the World Without Her" is directed by Dinesh D'Souza and John Sullivan. The two wrote a screenplay with Bruce Schooley based on D'Souza's book of the same title. The documentary was produced under the director's company D'Souza Entertainment. Sullivan said he was inspired by the History Channel miniseries "The Men Who Built America", "I really thought that there was something in that style which allows you to tell a bigger story." The director said the fiscal success of "" allowed the filmmakers to raise financing for "America". Re-enactment scenes were filmed in Camden, South Carolina. Actor John Koopman III, a resident of Colchester, Connecticut who had portrayed General George Washington at state and national parks throughout the United States, was cast to portray Washington in the documentary. Koopman brought his own historical wardrobe and horse for filming, which took place in Camden over the course of four days.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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"America: Imagine the World Without Her" was marketed to political conservatives and through Christian marketing firms. Lionsgate released the film in three theaters on , 2014 and expanded its distribution on the weekend of the U.S. holiday Independence Day on July 4, 2014. The film grossed , which made it the highest-grossing documentary in the United States in 2014, though D'Souza's previous documentary "2016: Obama's America" had grossed over . Most professional film critics called the film poorly-made and partisan. Political commentators were critical of D'Souza's rebuttal of Howard Zinn's criticisms, the filmmaker's treatment of Saul Alinsky, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and D'Souza's depiction of his own criminal prosecution. On the other hand, conservative commentators expressed a mix of full and qualified support for the documentary and D'Souza's intentions.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
43146299#0
America: Imagine the World Without Her is a 2014 American political documentary film by Dinesh D'Souza based on his book of the same name. It is a follow-up to his film "" (2012). In the film, D'Souza contends that parts of United States history are improperly and negatively highlighted by liberals, which he seeks to counter with positive highlights. Topics addressed include appropriation of Native American and Mexican lands, slavery, and matters relating to foreign policy and capitalism. D'Souza collaborated with John Sullivan and Bruce Schooley to adapt his book of the same name into a screenplay. D'Souza produced the film with Gerald R. Molen and directed it with Sullivan. The film combined historical reenactments with interviews with different political figures.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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Lionsgate gave the film a limited release in three theaters in the U.S. cities Atlanta and Houston on , 2014. The cities were selected for premiering "America" since "2016: Obama's America" performed well in them in 2012. "The Hollywood Reporter" said "America" "opened to solid numbers" with $39,000 for a theater average of $13,000. The distributor then planned a wide release for the weekend of the U.S. holiday Independence Day on , 2014. On , 2014, Lionsgate expanded the release to . For the weekend of , 2014, it grossed and ranked 11th at the box office. The film concluded its theatrical run after with a total gross of . "The Hollywood Reporter" said the gross was "a very strong showing for a documentary film". For 2014, "America" was the highest-grossing documentary in the United States. The film did not perform as well as "2016: Obama's America", which grossed over . To date, "America" ranks as the sixth highest-grossing political documentary in the United States.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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D'Souza wrote the book "America: Imagine the World Without Her", on which the documentary is based. Shortly before the film's release, the warehouse club Costco pulled the book from its shelves, saying its action was due to low sales. D'Souza called Costco's explanation "preposterous" and noted that his book had only been out a few weeks and was ranked #1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list, while Costco continued to stock hundreds of much lower-selling books. D'Souza asserted the book was pulled because one of Costco's co-founders, James Sinegal, supported Obama's politics. Rush Limbaugh and other media voices on the political right supported D'Souza with widespread criticism of Costco. Costco reordered the book and cited the documentary's release and related interest for the reorder.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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The filmmakers also sought to license the song "It's America" recorded by Rodney Atkins, but the licensing was denied by one of the songwriters due to the political premise of the documentary. They instead involved Dave Mustaine, founder of Megadeth, who recorded a heavy metal guitar version of "The Star Spangled Banner" for the film. The filmmakers also licensed the song "America" by Imagine Dragons and "Home" by Phillip Phillips.
America: Imagine the World Without Her
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D'Souza conducted interviews with the following individuals:
America: Imagine the World Without Her