Sometimes, when the fahrenheit hits 100 in the middle of summer, it's a good thing.  
Just ask Michael Moore.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker's latest fireball of a documentary, the President Bush (news - web sites)-bashing Fahrenheit 9/11, cooked up another $5 million in ticket sales this weekend, ranking in seventh place on the weekly box-office rundown.
But more importantly, the film, already the highest grossing documentary since its first weekend in theaters, hit the $100 million mark on Saturday, becoming the first doc in history to reach that milestone. Its total haul stands at $103.3 million in five weeks of release. Not too shabby for a film that cost just $6 million to make.
In a conference call Sunday, Moore credited the success to the public's desire to "look for the truth and begin the important discussion and debate that needs to take place in this county." Besides, he said,"right now it's really cool to talk about politics."
Moore also said that judging by his mail and snooping around cineplexes, Fahrenheit 9/11's record box office shows that people "want to go to a good movie. I don't think they are saying, 'Let's go see a documentary tonight.' I think they are saying that they've heard that this movie is funny, they've heard that this movie is sad, they've heard that this movie will show them things that they have never seen before, and I think that's why we all like to go to the movies."
Lions Gate, which, along with IFC Films, agreed to distribute the documentary after it was dissed by Disney, reports Fahrenheit 9/11 has performed best on the coasts, but is peforming strongly throughout the entire country. Although its audience is chiefly Democratic, the film is reportedly also scoring very well with independents. Perhaps most surprisingly, the studio says surveys suggest that more than 40 percent of the Republicans who have seen the movie would recommend it to others.
"I believe this movie is going to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the polls who otherwise were not going to vote," said Moore, who describes audiences as being very moved by the plight of the soldiers and their families. (Sony is planning on releasing a DVD version of the film by September.)
More also says that the film has benefited from free publicity, mostly courtesy of conservative types who continue to complain about the film, try to ban it from theaters, encourage illegal downloading of the film or evict Linda Ronstadt (news) from Vegas casinos when she praised the film.
"A month ago it was all about, 'This movie is just going to preach to the converted.' Well the converted came the first weekend...and as each weekend goes by it's not the hardcore political people--they did not wait--the people going now are the people that live in that great gray middle of America, people who don't necessarily consider themselves political people, but who are interested in the movie now because they turn on the TV and it's Linda Ronstadt one day, it's people on Fox going nuts, going absolutely nuts...and they go, 'Maybe I should go check this movie out.'"
Finally, Moore couldn't resist on zinger at Mickey's expense. "If you had told me when we were going through all our pre-distribution problems with Disney that this film would gross more than any other Disney film this year...I don't even know to respond to that," he said.
For his part Mouse House big cheese Michael Eisner has been gracious--perhaps because, as part of his deal with the film's producers, Disney gets to pick charities that will receive the bulk of Fahrenheit 9/11's profits. Eisner has also admitted to seeing the doc he dumped, telling the Associated Press, "The reason it is a hit is it's entertaining. I thought it was like going to a rock concert. I loved it, but not in a political [sense]."
The White House continues to try to ignore the movie. But Moore is trying to change that. He says that he plans to make an announcement this week during the Democratic National Convention about "my attempts to get [President Bush] to see the movie and an offer that I plan to make to him so that he has a chance to see the movie."