LOS ANGELES, June 28: US filmmaker Michael Moore on Monday claimed a major political coup against US President George W. Bush after "Fahrenheit 9/11" earned more at the box office than any other documentary in history.

The staggering and record-breaking success of the polemical film could indicate that it may play a role in influencing voters away from Bush ahead of November's election, some experts said.

The film that bashes Bush over the war in Iraq and for an alleged erosion of US civil rights amid the war against terror, crushed the big-budget Hollywood competition at the North American box office, taking an estimated 21.8 million dollars in its opening weekend.

The film, which just a month a ago could not find a distributor after Walt Disney Corp. refused to release it and which is the object of a vociferous conservative boycott campaign, is the first documentary ever to open in top spot at the US box office.

"These are mind-blowing numbers," Moore told USA Today of the film that opened on 868 US and Canadian screens on Friday. "All the predictions were that the movie would only speak to the choir, that it would only be for those who don't like Bush. I don't think that turned out to be true."

"The right wing is a getting a Christmas card from me," he told the Los Angeles Times of the film that won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palm D'Or, in May.

Moore has made no secret of his hopes that his movie's tough images and liberal political argument will help influence voters into defeating Bush in the November 2 presidential election. -AFP