For the second week since its release, ‘Unplanned,” the movie about Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who becomes a pro-life advocate, had a strong box office showing, surprising industry observers.
According to Religion News Service, the movie finished in 8th place and earned an estimated $3.2 million after expanding to 1,515 screens from its initial release on 1,000 screens. Its distributor, Pure Flix will now show the film on an additional 500 screens.
“This film has been an overwhelming success,” said Pure Flix CEO Michael Scott. “The amazing work of the filmmakers, actors and team behind bringing Abby Johnson’s story to audiences is helping to raise awareness to national and regional pro-life movements around the country. For one film to have such an impact with audiences that are showing up in such large numbers reinforces how important it is to bring this topic to audiences.”
‘Unplanned’ has drawn moviegoers in spite of the R rating it received from the MPAA. It also managed to surpass expectations even though several television networks refused to run ads for the film. When Twitter suspended the movie’s account on the day of the movie’s release, and then reinstated it, the number of followers rose from 8,000 to over 350,00, according to the RNS report.