The documentary No Safe Spaces, which depicts the assault on free speech on college campuses across America, had a solid second weekend. The film jumped from one screen to eleven last week, grossing an average of $5,310 per theater.
The documentary opened in Phoenix, bringing in over $45,000 while showing on one screen. That’s the second-highest box office total for a documentary playing at one theater.
No Safe Spaces, which features talk show host Dennis Prager and comedian Adam Carolla, is still in limited release, with more theaters being added each week. Moviegoers can check out the documentary’s website to find theaters, times and dates near them.
Writers from The Daily Citizen saw a rough cut of the movie earlier this year. The film gives examples from university campuses of attacks on free speech, free thought and the open exchange of ideas.
The producers explain that the film shows: “Terrifying violence on college campuses across America. Students lashing out at any speaker brave enough to say something they disagree with. Precious snowflakes demanding ‘Safe Spaces’ to protect them from any idea they haven’t heard from their liberal professors.” They warn, “It began in the universities, but – fair warning – it’s coming to your neighborhood and your workplace.”
In a 2018 column, Prager described how leftist activists use fear and intimidation – name calling, social ostracism, threats of violence and job loss – to bully and silence other voices. He writes, “It is becoming more and more common for leftist mobs to gather in front of a conservative’s home, scream epithets at the conservative’s family members and vandalize the home.”
Prager explained what’s becoming commonplace on colleges and universities: “Left-wing student mobs routinely take over the offices of university deans, professors and even presidents. The few non-left-wing professors on any campus understand their lives will be made miserable if they speak out.”
No Safe Spaces documents a number of such incidents, including the story of biology professor Bret Weinstein – a liberal, who was hounded out of his job at Evergreen State College in Washington. His crime? Weinstein refused to participate in an event where white people were told to leave the campus for a day. The film shows him surrounded by an angry, screaming mob of students. The police told Weinstein he was not safe on campus. Eventually, despite his liberal sympathies, he was forced out of the college.
The film was given a PG-13 rating for “for some language and brief violence.” Prager and Carolla fought for a PG rating but were turned down by the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) ratings board. The film has brief scenes of mob violence against conservatives, and one cartoon sequence shows “Firsty,” an animated representation of the First Amendment, getting shot full of bullet holes. Evidently that was too much for the censors.
Prager said kids would probably laugh at the scene with Firsty, and he encouraged conservatives to see the film: “I will urge my friends and fans who only go to PG movies to ignore the MPAA’s fake PG-13 rating and go anyway. And please bring friends.”
No Safe Spaces has a webpage where filmgoers can ask for the documentary to be shown in a nearby theater. The film will be released nationally on November 15.
For more:
“No Safe Spaces”: Documentary Exposes Intolerance on College Campuses
