The way abortion advocates tell it, women have been clamoring for a movie featuring abortion – and not just abortion, but a “positive” abortion story. Forever bemoaning the lack of abortions in romantic books and movies, and even shoehorning abortion into a wedding announcement, pro-abortion activists were screeching with joy over the pro-abortion film Obvious Child.
It’s a romantic comedy about a woman who gets dumped, has a one-night stand, and then has an abortion. Along the way, she makes a lot of jokes about farts and sex. Sounds hilarious and charming, right? But despite the fact that the abortion crowd was crowing over the awesomeness of Obvious Child, moviegoers apparently didn’t agree.
The film opened in limited release and is gradually being released to more theaters around the country. It is currently playing in 196 theaters and has netted just over $1 million after a month.
Fans of the film – and abortion – will likely spin this as a big win, but is it really? Consider two other limited-release films, Snowpiercer and Begin Again. Obvious Child is currently earning under $3,000 per theater; Snowpiercer is earning over $20,000 per theater, and Begin Again almost $30,000. The only film in the top five earning less per theater than Obvious Child is Maleficent, which rounds out the box office at number five and is bringing in $2,680 per theater – and it was released before Obvious Child was.
No one expected Obvious Child to be a box office smash as an independent comedy. But these numbers still tell a tale: women, in fact, are not rushing to theaters to see a movie that revolves around abortion. Crazily enough, it seems that people don’t find abortion all that romantic or funny. Like After Tiller, also the darling of the pro-abortion crowd, most of America is ignoring this movie, because most normal people don’t feel the need to romanticize abortion. Only pro-abortion extremists feel the need for abortion to not only be legal, but be celebrated and glorified.
Obvious Child was supposed to be the dawn of a glorious new day of abortion films, with studios realizing that it was just a genius idea to feature abortion as a positive in movies. But considering that most Americans aren’t turning out in droves to see a “comedy” about a girl who gets knocked up and has an abortion, laughing and making crude jokes all the way through it, the future of pro-abortion movies looks bleak.
Compare the response to Obvious Child by moviegoers to the turnout for pro-life independent limited-release film October Baby, which netted over $7,000 per theater upon release en route to over $5,000,000.
It’s even more overwhelmingly in favor of pro-life movies, considering the massive marketing blitz for Obvious Child, with media appearances and interviews and glowing reviews, while October Baby had nothing to recommend it except word of mouth.
Americans aren’t interested in seeing abortion trivialized, and they don’t find it particularly romantic or funny. But celebrating life? That’s something they can get behind.
