I'm Gonna Make A Fortune With My Documentary
On the topic of "An Inconvenient Truth", it's now the 10th most profitable documentary of all time. But you know what? That pretty much means squat. Take a look at this chart of the 100 top-grossing documentaries of all time. Inconvenient Truth is in 10th place with only seven million dollars grossed. 10th place! Of course, Inconvenient truth hasn't even gone into wider distribution yet, so it has time. It did beat Mission Impossible 3 last week though.
But I'm not so interested in Inconvenient Truth here, as I am in just how low-grossing documentaries are in general! Normal Hollywood movies aren't considered blockbusters these days unless they top $100 million. Only one documentary has ever done that, Fahrenheit 9/11, at $119 million. The next closest is March of the Penguins at $77 million. Then we drop down to $21 million for Bowling For Columbine. The next three docs are in mid- to low- teens. And at number seven is "Mad Hot Ballroom" with $8 million.
You can get on the list with under 1/2 million dollars as did "Outfoxed" (99th place) and "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenshtal" (100th place). I'd give you a non-documentary film that had grossed that low, but there basically no change you or I would have heard of it (whereas I distinctly remember seeing both Outfoxed and the Riefenshtal doc reviewed on Ebert & Roeper).
A relevant caveat is that there's a lot of documentary viewing that doesn't take place in theaters. Consider the Ken Burns docs. And Outfoxed was a big hit in DVD sales.
Oh, and just for the record, I've seen 18 of the top grossing documentaries, 12 in the theater (including special screenings).
But I'm not so interested in Inconvenient Truth here, as I am in just how low-grossing documentaries are in general! Normal Hollywood movies aren't considered blockbusters these days unless they top $100 million. Only one documentary has ever done that, Fahrenheit 9/11, at $119 million. The next closest is March of the Penguins at $77 million. Then we drop down to $21 million for Bowling For Columbine. The next three docs are in mid- to low- teens. And at number seven is "Mad Hot Ballroom" with $8 million.
You can get on the list with under 1/2 million dollars as did "Outfoxed" (99th place) and "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenshtal" (100th place). I'd give you a non-documentary film that had grossed that low, but there basically no change you or I would have heard of it (whereas I distinctly remember seeing both Outfoxed and the Riefenshtal doc reviewed on Ebert & Roeper).
A relevant caveat is that there's a lot of documentary viewing that doesn't take place in theaters. Consider the Ken Burns docs. And Outfoxed was a big hit in DVD sales.
Oh, and just for the record, I've seen 18 of the top grossing documentaries, 12 in the theater (including special screenings).