From all
indications, it looks like Gus Van Sant's Milk will
be a hit.
From all
indications, it looks like Gus Van Sant's Milk will
be a hit.
The biopic --
which documents the political life and murder of Harvey
Milk, the first openly gay man elected to major office in a
large U.S. city -- has raked in $1.9 million
since Wednesday, a good showing considering it played
in only 36 theaters.
"It's a
sensational opening," Focus distribution head Jack Foley
told The
Hollywood Reporter. "It's a record opening for a film opening in
this many theaters, and there were lots of sellouts
wherever it was playing."
Starring Sean
Penn as the San Francisco politician and James Franco
as his partner, Milk has received mostly
favorable reviews from America's critics. Specifically, the
acting in Milk has been lauded, with talk of Penn
taking home a second Best Actor Oscar (he won his
first for 2003's Mystic River).
Timing is also
ideal for the film's success, as Milk chronicles the
fight against Proposition 6 -- a failed 1978 ballot
initiative that would have banned gay teachers in
California's schools -- with lesbians and gays reeling
from the November 4 passage of Proposition 8, which
constitutionally banned same-sex marriage in the
Golden State. California's supreme court will decide
on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 next year.
Milk will be in 60 theaters in 32 markets by
Friday, December 5. (Neal Broverman, The
Advocate)
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