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It's been a hard season for political-minded movies at the box office. Here's a look at the walking wounded.

The Kingdom
Director Peter Berg flexed his inner Bruckheimer with this thriller about an elite FBI unit sent to Saudi Arabia. The most successful of the bunch.
GROSS: $47.5m

Rendition
Standard op-ed talking points such as deportation and torture are apparently no sexier when they feature Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal in leading roles.
GROSS: $9.7m

In the Valley of Elah
Audiences failed to materialize for Paul Haggis' critically lauded drama about a father (Tommy Lee Jones) investigating the mystery behind his GI son's death.
GROSS: $6.8m

Lions for Lambs
Even a dream team of Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Robert Redford couldn't salvage this talkathon about neoconservatism and the mainstream media.
GROSS: $14.8m

A Mighty Heart
Though Angelina Jolie won raves as slain reporter Daniel Pearl's pregnant wife, Mariane, the grim real-life story lost summer filmgoers to more frivolous fare.
GROSS: $9.2m


Posted Dec 14, 2007 | Published in issue #970 Dec 21, 2007 | Order Article Reprints