In the United States, the premiere is scheduled for February or March 2011. The distribution will be done by New Yorker Films, which had dropped the film after the Brazil–Turkey–Iran agreement in fear of a boycott led by the Jewish community. The film's ending clip has been modified for foreign audiences. According to producer Luiz Carlos Barreto, the international distributors wanted to highlight Lula's consecration as a global leader. "Instead of pictures in the Northeast, with his family, they want pictures with Obama and the Queen of the United Kingdom. We had this available, but avoided putting it in the original version in order not to get very jingoistic", he said. The film has two scheduled dates for television premiere. It will be featured on Canal Brasil's programming in February if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces that the film will compete for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Otherwise, it will be aired in March, in accordance with the rules of the academy. Reception Public Lula, Son of Brazil was a commercial flop, grossing only two million reals (around one million U.S. dollars) in its first week of release, being watched by no more than 200,000 people. In spite of the controversy surrounding the film, it was still the second in box office receipts that week, behind Avatar. As of January 8, the film had been watched by almost 320,000 people. At the end of its theatrical run, the film had sold 852,212 tickets, making it only the 7th highest-grossing national production of 2010 in Brazil. After watching the film in London, British Indian actor Ben Kingsley said that "this film is important for the whole world", adding that "[Lula's] history is bigger than Gandhi's". Kingsley won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1982 for his performance as Mahatma Gandhi in the eponymous film. Criticism Alexei Barrionuevo, correspondent for The New York Times in Brazil, criticized the film for "failing to mention that Lula abandoned his girlfriend, Miriam Cordeiro, when she was six months pregnant". Lurian Cordeiro, Lula's daughter with Miriam, sent a letter to the editor saying that her mother was not "abandoned". Cordeiro said that Lula not only paid for all of her mother's medical costs, but also legally recognized her as his daughter on the very day after her birth. She also noted the fact that none of Lula's children