Even though it’s facing censorship by some media outlets across the country, the motion picture Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer, made its way into the Top 10 movies in the country on its opening weekend, according to the website Box Office Mojo.
The film, which chronicles a true-life horror story that went almost ignored by politicians and the mainstream media, landed at number 10 spot on Friday and Saturday, before falling back to number 12. Phelim McAleer and his wife Ann McElhinney, the movie’s producers, reported the film’s success in a statement to The Daily Signal website.
“We are the No. 1 independent movie of the weekend and No. 5 per screen average across the US,” McAleer also said in the statement.
Directed by Nick Searcy, the movie stars Dean Cain as a detective on the case, Earl Billings as Gosnell, and Michael Beach as the prosecutor. The PG-13 film explores the shocking crimes and trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who received a life sentence for killing thousands of babies over three decades.
In May 2013, a jury found Gosnell guilty in the murder of three babies that had been born alive at his Philadelphia abortion clinic, the Women’s Medical Society. According to the grand jury report, Gosnell killed them by severing their spinal cords with scissors. Investigators also discovered refrigerators full of aborted fetuses in his offices.
He was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter, 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating an informed-consent law. Gosnell was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The film’s box office performance so far is not due to any mainstream media coverage.
The box office success of “Gosnell” is “a remarkable accomplishment, considering the filmmakers’ heroic struggle against bias and censorship to bring this life-changing, true story to audiences across America,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List said in a statement to The Daily Signal.
“We hope the mainstream media will finally be forced to reckon with the profound power of this film and give it the recognition it deserves,” the statement continued.
According to the movie’s website, it “was one of the most successfully crowdfunded films in history. Almost 30,000 people donated over $2.3 million in 45 days.”
The producers have also faced backlash for the movie’s storyline. Several media outlets have rejected commercials for the movie.
“We had NPR refusing to run our ads, like refusing to run the ads,” she said. “They wouldn’t allow us to call Kermit Gosnell an abortion doctor.”
“Facebook rejected ad upon ad upon ad that we have put up,” she explained. “There have been demonic forces, I have to say, constantly trying to stop us.”
It has been called one of the most important stories never told by the mainstream media, which took little notice of the case during the trial.
“You’d think a case about a medical doctor killing babies born alive would be a big news story, but what was also shocking about the trial of Kermit Gosnell was how little media attention it received,” said CBN News anchor and reporter John Jessup. “I was in the courtroom covering the trial for CBN News, just one of a handful of reporters.”
“And that really became part of the storyline, which is why it’s been called one of the most important stories never told,” Jessup said.