'Vaxxed': The Film That No One Saw

By Julianna LeMieux — Jun 30, 2016
Although many in the scientific and medical community were nervous when Andrew Wakefield's movie was released, we can all relax now. His slogan -- “The film that they don’t want you to see” -- seems to have backfired because ... virtually no one went to see it. Only 19,570 tickets sold and flimsy flick grossed just over $150,000 -- chump change in Hollywood.
Slide2 Photo credit: www.examiner.com

 

Did you see "Vaxxed"? Neither did I. It turns out that very few people did. It would seem that their slogan -- “The film they don’t want you to see” -- was taken a little too literally, since there were only a total of 19,570 tickets sold. (1) The Yankees sell almost three times that many tickets for one game (Yankee stadium seats 54,251), and they are terrible this year. But, apparently not as terrible as "Vaxxed". The film, created and starring Andrew Wakefield, attempts to perpetuate the false idea that vaccines cause autism. "Vaxxed" grossed $164,982 ranking it as #186 so far for 2016 -- chump change in Hollywood. I can sleep well at night knowing that "Vaxxed" did not have the negative effect that I feared it might by changing opinions about the importance of vaccination. I imagine that the people who paid $10 to see the movie were already not vaccinating their children. Perhaps Robert DeNiro and Terry Rossio, who have expressed interest in making films with a sympathetic view of Andrew Wakefield's story, will stop and think about their bank accounts before proceeding. To put this movie's financial failure into perspective, here is a comparison of the box office earnings of "Vaxxed" and another movie whose premise is as scientifically sound -- Jurassic World. The earnings from "Vaxxed" are represented by the flat red line on the bottom of the chart. Yes -- they are so far down that you have squint to see them. Thank goodness.

NOTE: (1) http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2016/top-grossing-movies