‘Unplanned’ makes twice the expected box office sales despite social media censorship
The pro-life movie “Unplanned” earned double the box office sales expected for its opening weekend, even while dealing with apparent censorship on social media.
Based on the life of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic worker turned anti-abortion activist, the movie raked in approximately $6.1 million over the weekend.
This was twice the expected ticket sales, and makes “Unplanned” the third biggest opening weekend film by Pure Flix, behind 2014's "God's Not Dead" ($9.2 million) and 2016’s “God’s Not Dead 2” ($7.6 million).
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Deadline Hollywood labeled the success of the pro-life film “remarkable” since the movie was rated R and was not able to run ads on most of the major cable networks.
Pure Flix CEO Michael Scott said in a statement released Sunday that his company was “very happy for the success of this film.”
“To bring the story of Abby Johnson to audiences and have them show up in such large numbers shows how the topic of abortion is so important to bring to audiences,” stated Scott, as reported by The Wrap.
“We hope that those on both sides of the debate will see 'Unplanned' and begin to have their own dialogue. This film can be that spark to bring more hearts and minds to understanding the value of life.”
The “Unplanned” film’s success also came as it dealt with issues on Twitter. The popular social media site briefly suspended the account, reportedly because of it being linked to a different account that had violated the website’s rules.
Twitter restored the film’s account soon after in response to extensive outcry from other users. Chuck Konzelman, co-director and co-writer of the movie, said that the suspension was “a sad state of affairs.”
“Whether this was an executive decision by Twitter, or a reaction by Twitter to complaints from those opposed to the pro-life viewpoint, either reason is unacceptable,” stated Konzelman, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
“Fortunately, the uproar in our defense was loud and fast in coming: Our account has since been reinstated. Thanks to all who have rallied to our defense.”
Further issues with Twitter continued, with the production and its allies noting a sudden unexplained decrease in the following numbers for the “Unplanned” account.
“The @UnplannedMovie account just dropped from 170k+ followers to 25.5k followers in the last hour. What is going on @jack @Twitter?” tweeted notable pro-life activist Lila Rose on Sunday evening.
This issue also appeared to be resolved by Monday morning, with the “Unplanned” account noting that their following list had shot back up again to over 200,000.
“Who else is watching Twitter like a hawk? Thanks to all of you who noticed Twitter pitching them off our follower list! It looks like we're back to normal - and up to almost 200k!” tweeted the movie's official account.
