All these wonderful things

SENNA Breaks UK Box Office Records for Documentary

[Editor's note - We're pleased to welcome Charlotte Cook to the blog as she writes from London about the astounding success of Asif Kapadia's SENNA documentary in the UK.]

Director Asif Kapadia's SENNA has broken the record for the highest grossing opening weekend for a documentary in British history. Taking £375,000 (approx $614,000) after opening on Friday 3rd June, it knocks the previous record holder TOUCHING THE VOID off the top spot which opened in 2004 to a weekend gross of $96,973.

Produced by Working Title Films/Universal the film has won Audience awards at this this year's Sundance and LA Film Festivals. Told entirely through archive and voice over, the film chronicles three-time Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna‘s extraordinary rise through Formula One racing to his tragic death at thirty-four in the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994.

Michael Rapaport's TRIBE CALLED QUEST Docu Storms the Indie Box Office

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, the debut feature by actor Michael Rapaport, finally landed in theaters last weekend after months of behind-the-scenes and in-the-press strife between the director and several of his subjects.  But in the end, the formerly, vocally-opposed Q-Tip and his fellow members of A Tribe Called Quest encouraged fans to see the film - and indeed they did, giving the BEATS the biggest documentary opening of 2011: the film took in a stellar average of nearly $28,000 in 4 theaters.

That tally just edged the opening weekend for one of the biggest docs of the year, Werner Herzog's CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, which averaged $27,820 on five screens back in late April.  After 11 weeks, CAVE is now zeroing in on $5M, a box office record for Herzog and a signal that he is one of the few directors working in nonfiction who have the strength to pull in an audience based on their name.

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK, which is nearing the end of its run (with a cume of nearly $1.4M), still holds the per screen record for docs this year.  It opened at the Film Forum in March and took in $33K during its first weekend.

New Trailer for Steve James' THE INTERRUPTERS

We're on record in saying that we think that Steve James' THE INTERRUPTERS is the documentary of the year (with the caveat that we still have a few to see).  Cinema Guild and Kartemquin just launched a new theatrical trailer for the film and it does a good job of capturing the multitude of emotions (as well as James' fine, fine camerawork) that make it such a stunning achievement.

THE INTERRUPTERS opens in two and a half weeks (July 29) at the IFC Center.  I arrives in Chicago two weeks later.