“October Baby” to open in 220 new theaters this weekend; success vexes abortion group
I’m sure October Baby producers loved that headline, which sandwiched their little pro-life movie between one of the top box office draws of all time and the sequel to another box office smash.
Here’s another one for their scrapbook…
After three weeks of limited release in 339 theaters nationwide, October Baby has surprised just about everyone as a sleeper success and this weekend will open in over 220 new venues.
To date October Baby has earned $3.8 million, not bad for a movie that cost less than $1 million to make and had a “paltry” $3 million marketing budget.
With those kinds of profits on the horizon, October Baby has now attracted the attention of NARAL, since filmmakers Jon and Andy Erwin have committed to donating 10% of the movie’s royalties to the Every Life is Beautiful Fund, “which will distribute funds to frontline organizations helping women facing crisis pregnancies, life-affirming adoption agencies,” according to the website.
NARAL has now launched a petition drive targeting Sony, parent company of Provident Films, which took a gamble on October Baby when other studios wouldn’t…
Provident Films specializes in backing good faith-based movies, so I wonder what sort of abortion-themed films NARAL expects Provident to support other than pro-life.
After all, NARAL has the rest of the liberal film industry in its camp, even if they typically write pro-life story lines these days (Waitress, Knocked Up, Juno). Abortion apparently isn’t a money-maker. Even last year’s Ides of March, starring George Clooney and Ryan Gosling, portrayed abortion in a terrible light.
But I digress. Here’ s another good headline sure to antagonize pro-choicers, particularly given the news outlet, whose editors probably had a hard time with it as well…
I spoke with co-writer and co-director Jon Erwin about his film and the NARAL controversy today. As I’ve previously mentioned, Jon and I met in Washington during the March for Life this past January.
If NARAL is vexed by donations being made to pregnancy care centers, which exist solely to help mothers and their preborn children in crisis situations, I expect NARAL will blow a gasket to learn Jon made a generous donation to help sustain this blog, although it came from his personal account.
“We want to support those who are making a difference,” Jon explained (pictured on left, with brother Andy on right). “Yours is a voice that needs to be supported, as do so many others. So we just write checks sporadically to worthy people and projects.”
The Every Life is Beautiful Fund will receive donations from the Erwin brothers when October Baby’s royalties come in. Jon said NARAL’s complaints don’t represent any sort of danger and “just shows we’re hitting a nerve” and also that the film’s intent, to battle apathy, had done its job.
On that vein, I asked Jon if and how October Baby has changed his life.
“I feel like the film moved me from a Republican pro-life pacifist to a pro-life activist,” Jon responded. “There is a whole generation of us who were like that.
“But then I was introduced to the reality of an abortion survivor when I heard Gianna Jessen’s story,” Jon continued. “I did not realize those two words - abortion survivor – could fit together. They ran me over like a Mac truck. Then I started studying the issue and decided change is more possible than we think. I think I’ve become a bit of a zealot, but I think that happens to just about everyone who studies the issue of abortion.”
[HT NARAL rant: Chicken Man]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Unless Sony’s marketing department is full of idiots, I don’t think we have much to worry about from NARAL’s strongly-worded-letter campaign. Indie movies are not generally successful. So when you get one that makes nearly four times its production budget back in the first week after only a limited release, you definitely don’t drop it. Sony likes money. October Baby is making it. NARAL can go stew.
NARAL, oh no you di’n’t! All the more reason for us to engage in a “buycott” for this film!
Shhhh, don’t tell NARAL that calling attention to this movie is known in the vernacular as “free advertising.”
Jill, thanks for using the word vex! I love to conjugate vex: They are vexed, he is vexed, he she or it will be vexed! LOL!
I just love how that one headline suggests its in direct competition with the hunger games!!! I mean this is an indie movie aimed at a niche market, right.
Is this movie coming to Canada by any chance?
Oh, and speaking off free publicity, they should really thank all the mainstream reviewers who trashed them. These reviewers are all read by people who never would have heard of the movie anyways!
It was a really good movie. Maybe I should go see it again!
I want to see it but its not playing anywhere near me!
The ‘borts are going ballastic over this movie. Check out the Imdb board: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1720182/board/threads/. I post there under albertflasher. Most of the threads are not about the movie at all, but are complaining about anti-choice fanaticsm and the usual tired stuff. I think that they’re going to implode, they’re so upset!
I didn’t think it was a GREAT movie, but I might go see it again. If you haven’t seen it, please do. And if you have, please see it again!
@Sydney — not to worry, just rent the video when it comes out, or better yet, buy it!
Maybe we should start a letter writing campaign/petition to Sony thanking them for making the movie! That would show those pro-abortion-choicers.
I am waiting for TV to give a news report of hunger in America.
I saw the movie October Baby and I loved it. See it any way you can. If your friends are busy, see it alone. It’s a great movie. If you get a chance, see the movie Doonby too. The guy who plays the role of Sam Doonby in the Doonby movie also plays the role of the adoptive father in the movie October Baby. I saw the two movies about three weeks apart and instantly recognized the same guy in both movies.
It’s sad that the pro-aborts have forgotten that we live in a free society where we can say what we want, produce what we want, express what we want, and give our money to whoever we want, whether they agree with us or not. They act like they think they should have a right to suppress anything that doesn’t glorify and promote abortion. If people like a pro-life movie, they throw a hissy fit. Well, people like all sorts of things I don’t agree with, but I don’t try to suppress it. That’s because I still believe in American rights and freedoms.
The times did a scathing review of the movie http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/movies/october-baby-with-jasmine-guy-and-john-schneider.html?ref=movies
so obviously biased.
I saw October Baby and thought it was quite good, moved little slow in the beginning but once it got going very realistic. It was mostly about forgiveness and redemption. Thank God that there are still both available through Jesus.
MusicBringsJoy, I wouldn’t worry about that. Real people who see the film tend to strongly disagree with the critics:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/october_baby_2011/
I haven’t seen it yet; hope it comes to my area. I intend to purchase one and donate it to my local library, which rents videos for free and loves donations. What better way to ensure wide viewership!
October Baby is a great film. Some snooty Catholic reviewers have bashed it as having poorly written dialogue and have said that it attacks adoptive parents. I think these people saw a different movie than me. If you haven’t seen it, do so, you won’t regret it. Aside from the prolife aspect this is a movie with no violence, no sex, and no swearing.
October Baby – come to Romania please!
I’m going to see it this weekend, God willing!
I want to vex them too!!!
Might have to go see it again!!
Now if we can’t just get the creators to stop referring to the tearing apart of a pre-born child as “an issue.”
It’s sad that the pro-aborts have forgotten that we live in a free society where we can say what we want, produce what we want, express what we want, and give our money to whoever we want, whether they agree with us or not. They act like they think they should have a right to suppress anything that doesn’t glorify and promote abortion.
That’s right, if they dont like it, they are free to make their own pro-abort movie! Another case of “freedom of speech for me, but not for thee . . .”
Loved the movie, but think that giving 10% to adoption agencies is not necessary. Adoption is huge business and “sealed records” creates an environment of shame and coercion and unethical practices. http://www.PeachNeitherHereNorThere.blogspot.com
Frebus Maxwell, GREAT IDEA!!! I think everyone should buy at least one copy of this movie and others such as Courageous and donate them to their local library! What do you say folks, let’s do this!
I like the idea of saving unborn lives and all…
But if the country does succeed in making abortion illegal, girls will still do it and go underground to dangerous and unclean places to get it and kill themselves in the process.
and what would making the choice to get an abortion illegal do to women’s rights? That would give incentive for the government to take away other rights for women. And I don’t want my rights taken away. (Now me personally I’d never get an abortion, I’d give birth to the child and then if I had to I’d give it up for adoption to someone who would take care of my baby if I couldn’t provide)
This is an awesome movie that I have seen twice and love that it’s stirring people up on both sides. God is at work through this movie. @ Peach – They are not just giving 10% to adoption agencies, they are giving to crisis pregnancy centers. My daughter gave her son, Jonathan, new life through “open” adoption where there is no secrecy and we’ve watch, from a distance, Jonathan growing up and know someday we will be reunited with him when he’s ready and if not here on earth then in heaven. I’m the Board Pres. of a local Crisis Pregnancy Center and those monies that they are giving away are for Center’s like ours, who educate and inform women in crisis of their options and support them in addressing their fears, in a loving environment with no judgement, sharing the gospel with them if they are open to receive it. We change lives and with that save the unborn as well. I pray that NARAL people will someday be touched by God and when their eyes, ears and hearts are open and receptive that they will see the “light”.
Jazmine,
So you like the idea of saving preborn babies but then you are fine with other women killing their preborn babies but you would never consider killing your own preborn baby but on the other hand believe that women need the right to kill their own preborn babies.
Got it.
Please start educating yourself on “dark and dangerous and illegal” practices. Before 1973 the year of Roe V Wade and Doe V Bolton abortions were done in doctors offices. The deaths from illegal abortion in 1972? Around 39 women. The story of one extremely desperate and IMHO mentally ill woman who used a hanger on herself and died was USED and EXPLOITED to foster sympathy for the proabort cause.
Now we have abortion mills killing and harming women everyday in this country in “front alley” chop shops. All safe. All legal. Right??
Desperate women will do desperate things. Women will harm themselves and resort to unspeakable things. They need mental evaluations if they are shoving hangers into themselves.
Women deserve better than abortion.
My body and my mind are mine. I have a right to choose what happens to it. No one can take that away from me.
It’s up to me to make my choices and live with my consequences but I do NOT have the right to decide for an unborn child whether they live or die because of my poor choices. God created that child for a purpose and knew that child before it was even conceived in the womb.
I find it interesting that those who think they have a right to make the choice for abortion were given life by their mothers to stand for that belief. What if their mothers had decided they were worth living to have a voice?
All life is beautiful and valuable in the unborn as well as the sick, disabled and the elderly and no one should have the right to determine the value of one’s life but God.
There are already laws out there that personally affect me in that I may need an organ transplant and in my state, a donor organ goes to those younger in age who are very sick before the elderly who are very sick, because it’s been deemed that the elderly do not have as much to give back to the community as the younger do. I’m only 58 but have been told by the time I get on the list for a transplant, if at all, I will died waiting for the transplant. I am still a very active member of my community giving back and serving, and God willing, will continue to be.
I take responsibility for my choices, consequences and my actions. I value ALL life, especially for those who do not have a voice or can’t fight for their life.
Women are allowing themselves to be told lies without searching for the truth. Most women turn to abortion out of fear.
I personally know five women and one man in my life who have had abortions or were involved in one and they have physical complications from them such as not being able to have children or carry to term or having hysterectomies because of the damage done to their uterus from abortions.
Then let’s talk about the mental repercussions causing drug and alcohol abuse, fears of their secret getting out and feelings of guilt because the knew deep down what they had done was wrong because they put themselves first instead of thinking of the child. I hurt for them.
I’ve now seen these women healed from their burden of secret and be freed because of love, compassion, and forgiveness. These women are now speaking out about the lies they were told and the physical and mental experiences that they went through after their abortions and how free they are now. I can see a glow about them and joy on their faces. They bless me every time I’m with them.
I’ve learned much from these women and have great respect for them telling their stories. That is what October Baby is all about. Love, forgiveness and understanding that ALL lives are beautiful.
I heart Maxswiggy.
Heavens… how many times will we hear the same re-treaded arguments and rationalisations?
Just to startle a few people for a moment, let me describe how I agree with Jazmine, et al.:
I agree that everyone “should have a choice about the matter”… in the sense that it would be morally wrong to eradicate abortion by doing some creative sort of lobotomy, etc., on pro-abortion people. Every last person, as a child of God, has radical freedom of will as a birth-right.
But if we’re speaking of “shoulds”, we need to add a few:
1) Every last person on earth *should* abhor and refuse recourse to abortion; that’s a moral obligation, not simply one moral option among many.
2) Every “free choice to kill one’s child” is a morally evil choice, and any society should (i.e. it has an iron-clad obligation to) establish severe consequences for every such murder (with adjustments being made for extenuating circumstances, such as coercion, true ignorance, etc., as is the case with any other crime).
At the risk of being pedantic: the only sense in which one would be morally correct in saying that “women should be free to abort” is in the rarefied, philosophical sense that “no human should ever be deprived of freedom of will”. But most abortion-tolerant people go further (though using the same euphemistic language), and claim that “no human should ever be deprived of freedom of ACTION“… and this is not true at all. Every evil action, to the extent that it threatens the fundamental rights of others (and the stability of the society in question), can and should be restrained by any sane and functional civil government, at very least.
and what would making the choice to get an abortion illegal do to women’s rights? That would give incentive for the government to take away other rights for women. And I don’t want my rights taken away.
I do not oppose abortion because women get them. I oppose it because it kills children. Women are inextricably linked to the issue, but that does not mean that ending abortion reduces women’s rights. Women will still be able to vote, work, own property, drive cars, run for office, go to college, run a company… This objection doesn’t make any sense at all. Ending abortion grants human rights to all humans, whether born or not. To use that as a springboard for taking away rights (actual rights, like property ownership or suffrage) would not logically follow.