Strong Debuts for No End in Sight & Devil Came on Horseback, Plus the 1st 7 Months of Doc Box Office

As summer begins to wind down, we're entering an increasingly active period for theatrical documentary debuts.  With KING OF KONG and IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON due in the next few weeks (and many more to follow in the fall), two recent political documentaries that premiered at Sundance opened in limited engagements to strong numbers last weekend. 

Charles Ferguson's NO END IN SIGHT has opened to extremely positive reviews and strong box office numbers - averaging nearly $16,000 at 2 theaters last weekend and more than $7,000 on 6 screens this weekend.  Meanwhile, Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern's THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK opened July 25 at the IFC Center in NY and has made nearly $32,000 on that single screen over the past 12 days.  It, too, has received nearly unanimous rave reviews.

Meanwhile, ARCTIC TALE, the nature flick that some pegged as the next MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, had an unspectacular expansion after a decent limited first weekend.  Playing at 28 theaters the film averaged under $2,000 per screen, with a total of $51,643 for the weekend.

Looking at the year to date documentary box office, the elephant in the room (there are so many mixed metaphors in that) continues to be SICKO, Michael Moore's health care treatise.  While it has now passed BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and looks to creep past AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH on its way to being the third biggest documentary ever, no other film has crossed $1 million at the box office, making 2007 the first year since 2002 without at least 2 films over $1 million by August 1.  Aside from IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, it will be interesting to see if any of the other remaining 2007 doc entries will be able to cross that barrier.

Looking at the list of the top 15 docs of 2007 to date, I'm struck that a majority of the films are from the smaller indie distributors - 2 from Shadow, 2 from Zeitgeist, 2 from Canadian runs via Alliance.  Of the larger indies, Magnolia has three, THINKFilm - for all its doc acquiring - just one. 

 

Here's the top 15 doc films of 2007 through this past weekend:

1.    SICKO (LionsGate)                                  $22,640,249

2.    INTO GREAT SILENCE (Zeitgeist)             $     758,433

3.    SHARKWATER (Alliance)                         $     756,244

4.    GOD GREW TIRED OF US (Newmarket)     $     301,447

5.    CRAZY LOVE (Magnolia)                          $     277,123

6.    GYPSY CARAVAN (Shadow)                      $     214,250

7.    AN UNREASONABLE MAN (IFC)                  $     176,647

8.    MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES (Zeitgeist)  $     147,482

9.    SHOWBUSINESS (Regent)                          $     130,086

10.   ARCTIC TALE (Paramount Vantage)         $       93,972

11.   NO END IN SIGHT (Magnolia)                   $       93,586

12.   RADIANT CITY (Alliance)                         $      78,944

13.   AIR GUITAR NATION (Shadow)                 $      70,423

14.   ZOO (THINKFilm)                                    $      69,770

15.   MAXED OUT (Magnolia)                            $      58,829