A anti-Obama documentary made by a conservative film maker has proved a surprise hit at the box office, raking in more than $6 million over the weekend and edging out several high-budget Hollywood productions.
The controversial documentary argues that Barack Obama is stridently anti-colonialist.
Obama 2016 traces President Barack Obama's life from his upbringing in Hawaii to his childhood years in Indonesia and his father's roots in Kenya, arguing that his international background has imbued him with an un-American worldview.
It features an interview with Mr Obama's half-brother, George Obama, who lives in a slum in Nairobi and argues that colonialism was not responsible for Kenya's economic problems.
The documentary also presents a nightmarish version of America at the end of a second Obama term, ending with a warning to voters: "The future is in your hands".
With $6.2 million in sales it beat Hope Springs, a comedy starring Meryl Streep, and Hit and Run, a light-hearted Hollywood summer flick.
The film was made by Dinesh D'Souza, an Indian-American conservative who once served as a policy advisor to Ronald Reagan. Throughout the 89-minute documentary, Mr D'Souza, author of The Roots of Obama's Rage, compares his own life to Mr Obama's and argues that the President's background has never been properly examined by the media.
“There is a real hunger for information about Obama and a sense that information is not being covered or, in some cases, even being withheld,” Mr D'Souza told Politico last week.
“There is a sense that there are elements of the media that are protective of Obama, that they would rather block a story that is embarrassing about Obama than let the American public decide.”
The film's top 10 spot is partly down to an unusually weak August box office - normally a period for high-grossing blockbusters - but its popularity is striking for a documentary.
It has taken in more than $9 million in total, placing it among the highest-grossing political documentaries in film history but still well short of the $119 million grossed by Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 - a film deeply critical of the Bush administration's response to the September 11 attacks.
Some critics have dismissed Obama 2016's criticisms of Mr Obama as racially motivated but the film is expected to continue to grow in popularity as the Republican National Convention continues in Tampa.
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