I just checked back on the box office figures for Fahrenheit 9/11, and noted that it had broken the $200 million landmark. The $118 million domestic take is amazing enough, but $85 million overseas–for what is a very American, very political film–is outstanding. And note that the second-highest overseas gross is in Japan, where grosses don’t usually go very high–and those figures are just after three weeks of release!

The DVD is due for release on October 5th (pre-order your copy!), and since DVDs now often sell more than at the box office, and since this one is coming out unusually early, it should gross even more, breaking more records. But the DVD will also mark a breakthrough in viewership, since a lot more people either on the fence or even on the other side of the fence will be more liable to plop down three bucks for the rental to watch at home rather than pay more than twice that much, per person, not including popcorn, to go to the theater.

In the meantime, Republicans feebly gathered in Dallas for their conservative-laden “American Film Renaissance,” featuring the anti-Moore polemic, “Michael Moore Hates America.” In a rather pathetic wannabe us-too display, the crowd rose and gave the film a ten-minute standing ovation, which did not speak well for the film. After all, a less partisan crowd gave F-9/11 a 15-minute ovation at Cannes; if a staunchly conservative crowd trying their hardest to match that for their best-effort hate movie can only eke out ten minutes on their feet, there must be some enthusiasm missing there. The documentary’s maker aspires to get a theatrical release sometime in October. Well, maybe–but if it does, it won’t be on the film’s merits, but rather because, ironically, Moore’s own film paved the way.