Film Critique of Obama Takes in $6.2 Million in Wider Release

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES - Love it or loathe it, “2016: Obama's America” - the director Dinesh D'Souza's documentary critique of Barack Obama's policies and ideological roots - has arrived as a box-office event. As it expanded to about 1,100 theaters across the country, the film took in an estimated $6.2 million over the weekend, for a total of more than $9 million in domestic ticket sales since its release by Rocky Mountain Pictures on July 13.

As documentaries go, that makes it a hit. According to a weekly listing provided by Hollywood.com, it ranked No. 8 at the box office over the weekend, just behind Sony's “Premium Rush,” a new release, and just ahead of Sony's “Hope Springs,” which has been on screens since Aug. 8.

Separately, Boxofficemojo.com's figures now show “2016: Obama's America” to be the year's third-ranked documentary, behind Paramount's “Katy Perry: Part of Me” and Disney's “Chimpanzee.”< /p>

To rival Michael Moore's “Fahrenheit 9/11,” an anti-George Bush documentary released before the 2004 election, would require a very steep climb. “Fahrenheit,” which opened in more than 800 theaters, took in nearly $24 million on its first weekend, and went on to accumulate $119.2 million in domestic ticket sales, making it, by Boxofficemojo's count, the top-grossing documentary of all time.

But “2016: Obama's America” already ranks No. 6 on Boxofficemojo's list of political documentaries, just behind Mr. Moore's 2009 film, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” which had $14 million in domestic ticket sales.

Mr. D'Souza's film may yet rise in the rankings. Its strong per-screen average ticket sales over the weekend - $5,717, much higher than any other film in the weekend's Top 10 - signal more sales ahead. And Mr. Moore's capitalism documentary, or even his “Bowling for Columbine,” which ranks No. 4 on the list of top political attractions, with $21.6 million in domestic revenue, could be within reach.

CNN Looks for a Boost From HBO Shows

By AMY CHOZICK

In a bit of corporate synergy, Time Warner is planning to dip into one of its strongest cable channels, HBO, to help revive the fortunes of one of its weakest, CNN.

As part of Time Warner's attempt to reinvigorate its 24-hour cable news channel, which recently suffered from its worst ratings slump in 20 years, the company said it had encouraged CNN to look for creative ways to incorporate HBO's sports and documentaries into its lineup of news programs.

On Sept. 1, CNN will broadcast “41,” an HBO documentary about George H. W. Bush that premiered on the pay-cable channel in June. On Sept. 2, the network will introduce the 2009 HBO documentary “Teddy: In His Own Words” about Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

The strategy fits into a broader effort by CNN to develop unscripted series to complement its news reports, particularly on late nights and weekends.

CNN said Thursday that i t had recruited the documentarian Morgan Spurlock, best known for his 2004 Oscar-nominated film “Super Size Me,” to host and produce a series called “Inside Man.” The show will have its debut in April 2013 and will follow Mr. Spurlock each week as he immerses himself into a niche of American life, including migrant farm workers and marijuana growers.

In May, CNN said it had hired the chef Anthony Bourdain to host a weekend program, that is still unnamed, that will be shot on location as Mr. Bourdain explores food, culture and travel. “I'm not gonna barbecue in ‘The Situation Room' with Wolf Blitzer,” Mr. Bourdain told the Hollywood Reporter.

CNN said Mr. Bourdain's program would be broadcast as a weekend block with Mr. Spurlock's series, an approach that has helped CNN's cable news competitors. Both MSNBC and Fox News mix reporting with documentary series: “Lockup,” on MSNBC, is about life inside prisons, and the military history program “War Stories” is hosted by Oliver North on Fox.

“We're moving toward doing more original long-form programming on the weekends, and obviously a lot of stuff the HBO documentary unit does fit in nicely with that,” said Mark Whitaker, executive vice president of CNN Worldwide.

CNN has dipped into HBO's trove of documentaries and sports programming before, with “Citizen USA,” about new American citizens, and “Triangle: Remembering the Fire,” about the fatal 1911 fire at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City.

In July, Time Warner said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, would step down at the end of the year. “CNN needs new thinking,” Mr. Walton said in an internal memorandum. “That starts with a new leader.”

Jeffrey L. Bewkes, chief executive of Time Warner, served as chairman and chief executive of HBO from 1995 to 2002, a period of strong growth.

Mr. Whitaker said Mr. Bewkes was not directly involved in CNN's programmin g decisions, but “he has made it clear that he would love to see us all working together a little more.”

There is always a risk in broadcasting too many HBO films on a basic cable channel like CNN, since subscribers pay roughly $15 a month for access to those movies on the HBO channel, HBO on Demand and the HBO Go Web site and app.

Mr. Whitaker said documentaries were different from series like “True Blood” and “Game of Thrones,” in that HBO does not make them for ratings or to attract new subscribers, but for the prestige and critical attention documentaries bring.

“I think their view is that they've already made the investment and the filmmakers have made the investment and they'd like to see the work get more exposure,” Mr. Whitaker said. An HBO spokesman agreed.

Times To Sell About Group To IAC/Interactive For $300 Million

By THE EDITORS

On Monday, The New York Times Company is expected to announce that it has sold the About Group, which includes the expert site About.com, to Barry Diller's IAC/Interactive for $300 million in cash, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations who declined to be identified before the official announcement.

IAC/Interactive made a surprise bid of $300 million last week, after it had been widely assumed that the Times would sell About to Answers.com for a reported $270 million. But as he has many times in the past, Mr. Diller won the day for IAC/Interactive, the company he has built out of a shopping basket of Web sites and services like Match.com, Ask.com and The Daily Beast.

About.com is a collection of individual sites devoted to particular topics like cooking, travel and pregnancy that are curated by individual experts. The Times bought the About group in 2005 for just over $400 million and the company contin ued to perform well under new ownership, garnering top search results and attracting advertising. But changes in Google's search algorithm in 2011 punished About.com, which has sometimes been criticized for failing to have content as compelling as its search optimization.

As its search results on Google tumbled, advertising also fell. Revenue at the group fell in the most recent quarter by 8.7 percent to $25.4 million and the Times announced it was taking a writedown of $194.7 million on About.

The sale is the latest in a series of sales the Times Company has made in the past few years, shedding assets to focus primarily on The New York Times brand. It recently sold its remaining stake in the Fenway Sports Group, owner of the Boston Red Sox, and in January it sold its regional newspaper group to Halifax Media Holdings for $143 million.

IAC/Interactive is expected to incorporate its latest acquisition into its array of information sites like Ask.com, which t he company is attempting to remake into a question-and-answer site based around online community.