The fall, post-TIFF documentary box office is off-and-running as two Sundance premieres - Davis Guggenheim's WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN' and Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost's CATFISH - have dominated the specialty box office for the past two weekends.
CATFISH, which opened last weekend to a stunning $21,440 average on 12 screens, continued its winning ways this weekend as it more than quadrupled its theater count. Now on 57 screens, the film averaged more than $8K per screen. It will become the 6th nonfiction film to cross the magic $1M mark sometime this week.
The LA Weekly's Karina Longworth wrote about the film - which was picked up by Relativity Media - and, after noting some Park City confusion over CATFISH's "truthiness", she explored why the company is agressively trying to scrub the film of its documentary label, preferring instead to sell CATFISH as a "reality thriller":
"'I think the film is 100 percent a 'documentary,' " (Relativity's Ryan) Kavanaugh says, calling from vacation in Hawaii, his air quotes audible over the phone. That said, he adds, "You don't want to call it a 'documentary' because it doesn't really do it justice. The term documentary carries kind of a weird, artsy, negative connotation with it.'...
Rogue/Universal seem intent on scrubbing CATFISH of its indie-doc roots. They held the film back from the festival circuit after Sundance, and have an aggressive release strategy. A special effort has been made to avoid booking CATFISH in traditional art houses, planting it instead at upscale multiplexes alongside Hollywood fare, as if to dare the audience to spot the difference. It's a gamble built on the assumption that the masses who live their lives online will: (a) be receptive to a film that not only mirrors their behavior but warns against it; and (b) embrace it quickly and ardently enough to spread box office–boosting word of mouth. Meanwhile, the "Don't call it a documentary because people think documentaries are educational and boring" messaging seems to be at odds with the filmmakers' belief that Catfish has nutritive messages to impart to the youth of today."
Still, with strong critical notices (90% of Rotten Tomatoes "Top Critics" approve of the film at this writing) and comparisons to zeitgeist-y feature THE SOCIAL NETWORK, CATFISH has the potential to be a breakout documentary hit. It's early numbers compare favorably to EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, another Sundance title that has inspired a lot of "is-it-or-isn't it" conversation.
Meanwhile, this weekend belonged to Davis Guggenheim's WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN'. Reports estimate that the film averaged more than $35K on each of its 4 screens - the top debut for a documentary this year and the best opening since last year's Michael Moore effort, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY. Buoyed by coverage on Oprah Winfrey and Meet the Press, the film - which takes on the American public school crisis and the often disfunctional teacher's unions - seems to have hit a cross-platform, bi-partisan nerve from reform.
Backed by the same folks who made Guggenheim's Oscar winning AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH - Paramount and Participant - the film didn't quite reach the stratospheric heights of TRUTH's debut, but if these numbers continue, 'SUPERMAN' could be the year's second $10M doc (OCEANS has crossed that threshold) and first to deal with issues. Whether that makes Guggenheim a contender for his second Oscar, it's probably too early to tell.
Our Sundance coverage of CATFISH is here, while coverage of WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN' can be found here.
Meanwhile, we've updated our chart of the top documentaries at the box office in 2010. Summer additions include Amir Bar-Lev's THE TILLMAN STORY and Lucy Walker's COUNTDOWN TO ZERO. Still to come in a jam-packed fall, doc line-up: Charles Ferguson's INSIDE JOB, Alex Gibney's CLIENT 9, the omnibus FREAKONOMICS and what is sure to be the biggest nonfiction title of 2010 - JACKASS 3D.
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