From Cliff Thies:

Market-test of Atlas Shrugged: sold 1.9 M copies through 1964, 5 M through 1991. A bit less than 100,000 per year following that until 2009, when sales increased to 500,000 per, during which year it peaked at #4 on the best-seller list.

These are monster numbers for a book.

Now, let's consider Part 1: Opening week: $3 M. Well, how does that compare to the Academy Award-winning King's Speech? $4.5 M.

The King's Speech went on to enjoy critical acclaim, a nomination for Best Movie, and then won for Best Movie. So, a not dissimilar opening eventually turned into a huge number ($138 M).

Admittedly, without the buzz enjoyed by The King's Speech, such spectacular results could not be anticipated for Part 1. But, in terms of justifying going into production for Parts 2 and 3, the numbers for Part 1 were fine.

Just Breaking...

Sources other than the L.A. Times now indicate that there are already plans to move ahead with Parts 2 and 3.