Conservative filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza is about to beat liberal Michael Moore at the box office — even though the mainstream media has largely ignored or panned D’Souza’s latest documentary, “America: Imagine the World Without Her.”
This week, “America” will pass $14 million in box office, surpassing Moore’s “Capitalism” to become the sixth-largest-grossing documentary of all time. (No. 1 is Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” having earned $119 million in the US.)
“It’s remarkable,” D’Souza told me. “We’re not as reliant on the critics as the critics think we are.”
Audiences have found the film despite the lack of coverage, just as they did with his earlier documentary, “2016: Obama’s America.”
“It was only when Barack Obama attacked me on his website that the media started attacking as well,” D’Souza said. “With this movie ‘America,’ it’s not like I’ve had no exposure, but it’s not like Michael Moore. When Michael Moore has a film, it’s everywhere.”
D’Souza’s book of the same title will finally be No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list on Sunday, after two weeks at No. 2. “They couldn’t ignore it anymore,” said the author.
Costco, which briefly removed the book from its stores, is now selling thousands of copies. “They said it was a business decision to pull it. I’m not convinced,” D’Souza said. “But it was certainly a business decision to put it back.”
As for his prosecution for violating federal campaign finance laws by donating too much money to a friend — Republican US Senate candidate Wendy Long — D’Souza said he never denied his guilt.
“The question is, am I being treated the same as anyone else who did the same thing for the same reasons? The Obama administration has a history of using the instruments of the state to go after their adversaries.”
D’Souza points out that his producer Gerald Molen has been targeted by the IRS for taxes, and that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid looted campaign funds to pay for his daughter’s wedding. “Why isn’t Harry Reid in handcuffs?” D’Souza asked.
Quoting himself from the movie, D’Souza said, “Lady Justice seems to have taken off her blindfold and is winking at her friends and casting the evil eye at her adversaries.”