Despite all the libertarians in the nation selflessly relinquishing their Ron Paul gold for evil paper money so they could buy a movie ticket, Atlas Shrugged: Part I only made $1.7 million in its opening weekend, coming in at fourteenth place, right behind statist epic Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules.

For a pure independent release, Atlas Shrugged: Part I's opening was fine. But for the first-ever adaptation of Ayn Rand's influential mega-selling 1957 novel that had far more media hype than any other independent movie could dream of, it was disappointing.

There aren't many direct comparisons, because it's rare that an adaptation of such a famous book gets such a modest release. Atlas Shrugged: Part I opened higher than recent limited Christian movies The Grace Card and To Save a Life, and it was distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures' third highest-grossing launch, behind End of the Spear and Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Pathetic. We're sure Part II and Part III will get multiple times more Oscars than this failure, though. Because multiplying anything by zero is still zero. [Box Office Mojo]