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Hillary Clinton

'Hillary's America' documentary cracks top 10 at box office

Bryan Alexander
USA TODAY
Dinesh D'Souza in 'Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party.'

Politics isn't just center stage after last week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

The documentary Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, highly critical of presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, cracked into film's top 10 winners at the box office for the weekend.

Hillary's America has landed in the 10th spot with $3.7 million in 1,217 theaters for a two-week total of $3.8 million, according to comScore.

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The film, co-directed and co-written by conservative author and pundit Dinesh D'Souza and screenwriter Bruce Schooley, had opened July 15 in three theaters. Hillary's America expanded after the RNC, where Clinton was a frequent target among speakers and delegates.

"It’s really no surprise a politically-charged documentary would generate this kind of interest," says Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for comScore. "The filmmakers timed this out to be book-ended by the RNC and the DNC, and it  paid off. "

D'Souza directed the highly-critical 2012 documentary 2016: Obama's America which made $33 million in box office and pulled an even larger haul of $6.5 million in its main opening weekend.

A delegate holds up a sign that reads "Hillary's Lies Matter!" as other delegates and attendees crowd the floor prior to the start of the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20.

Hillary's America was crushed by critics, earning a 5% positive critical rating on the review aggregation site RottenTomatoes.com.  Alan Zilberman's  Washington Post review said that the critical exploration of the Democratic Party through Clinton's candidacy  "was too incoherent for serious argument."

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Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic called the "right wing polemic ... vile stuff (that will) doubtless play right into the political climate."

In an emailed statement to USA TODAY, D'Souza said the movie is based on "facts that really can't be denied."

"The importance of this movie being released after the Republican convention and before the Democratic convention is to give people a factual understanding of the roots of the Democratic party and some vaccination or inoculation against the propaganda viruses that are going to be unleashed at the Democratic convention," D'Souza wrote.

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump weighed in on Twitter, urging his supporters on Sunday: "Hillary's America. see it"

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