On this day in vegan history · October 24, 2013
Blackfish Finds Its Real Audience on CNN
A documentary about a captive orca aired free on cable news and turned SeaWorld's business into the story.
The facts
- CNN Films premiere
- October 24, 2013
- Director
- Gabriela Cowperthwaite
- Theatrical box office
- $2,073,582 in North American theaters
- SeaWorld attendance
- down 5% in the first nine months of 2013
Gabriela Cowperthwaite's documentary Blackfish had already played the Sundance Film Festival and a modest theatrical run when CNN Films put it on cable television on October 24, 2013. The broadcast reached the biggest audience the film had found yet, topping every other cable news network that night among younger viewers. Built around the 2010 death of trainer Dawn Brancheau and the orca Tilikum's decades in captivity, the film turned SeaWorld from a family vacation brand into a company defending itself in public. Attendance at SeaWorld's parks was already softening that year, and the CNN airing made sure a much wider audience was watching.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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was #1 in cable news last night (9:00-11:00pm) averaging 472k in the key-demo adults 25-54 rating
CNN Communications, on the October 24, 2013 CNN Films premiere of Blackfish
Source: CNN Press Room -
is inaccurate and misleading and, regrettably, exploits a tragedy
SeaWorld's official statement responding to the film
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The CNN broadcast is the moment Blackfish stopped being a niche documentary and became a mainstream reckoning that musicians, legislators, and SeaWorld's own investors couldn't ignore.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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