Sicko Sells Out, Weinstein Expands Release

More Sicko News (yes, it's the week of release, so expect this to be the final ramp up): As we previously reported, Michael Moore's film premiered this weekend on one screen at an New York City Upper West Side AMC/Lowes theater. The good news is that the film sold out ALL of its shows, and made $70,000. While that doesn't sound like a lot, remember that's just for one screen. To give you perspective, 1408 made around $7,500 per screen this weekend.

Apparently tons of moviegoers were turned away, and ticket scalpers were hawking tickets outside the theater. Michael Moore even showed up unannounced on Friday night. Sicko also sold out all of its sneak previews on Saturday night, which took place on 43 screens.

The Weinstein Co and Lionsgate were originally planning on releasing the documentary in 200-250 theaters, and that number was pre-internet leak. Many people assumed the company would downplay the release, but it seems like Weinstein was very impressed with this weekends results. The film will now be released on 300 to 400 screens, almost half the amount of Moore's 2004 doc Fahrenheit 9/11.

Weinstein told Variety that he didn't expect the film to sellout in places like Randolph, Mass., and Buffalo, N.Y., and that exit polls on the film were unusually high (ie people loved the flick). I saw the film a few weeks back and think it's the best film of the year (so far).