All these wonderful things

Wrapping Up the Spring Docs Box: BIEBERnaut, CATS, CAVE, CUNNINGHAM & I AM

With summer just around the corner, the spring theatrical documentary season is about to wrap up.  On the horizon are a few of the titles that made waves at Sundance this year (we expect big things for BUCK, PAGE ONE and BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE, among others), while a few late spring titles (CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, L'AMOUR FOU) spill over their expansion into the summer months.

So far, 4 of 2011's nonfiction titles have crossed the magical $1 million threshold (with a fifth about to), including two that made it over the top this weekend: Werner Herzog's still-expanding 3D CAVE (which premiered at last year's Toronto Film Festival) and I AM, the big question docu from high concept comedy director Tom Shadyac.  The latter has been nursed by distribtutor Paladin (and is by far the micro-distrib's greatest box office success) and has drawn comparisons to the doc/fiction hybrid WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?, which grossed more than $10M over its long release in 2004.

The other two hits are no big surprise - there's the Biebernaut, NEVER SAY NEVER, which just became the 4th biggest nonfiction hit in history, as well as AFRICAN CATS, the latest in the Disneynature Earth Day franchise.  It looks unlikely that CATS will match the dollars made by its predecessors (EARTH made $34M and OCEANS took in $19), but with a haul of nearly $15M, CATS has surpassed CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY to become the #17 docu of all time.

Bigger Than Michael?: BieberDoc Becomes Highest Grossing Concert/Music Film of All Time

According to weekend box office estimates, the Justin Bieber 3D documentary NEVER SAY NEVER has now inched past MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT to become the highest grossing music or concert documentary of all time.  NEVER is now estimated to have grossed $72.2M through Sunday, while the postumous Jackson film tapped out at $72.1.  NEVER, which was directed by Jon Chu, was released by Paramount; THIS IS IT was distributed by Sony in October 2009.  Official figures will be released tomorrow.

NEVER SAY NEVER now sits just half a million behind JACKASS: NUMBER TWO (another Paramount title) at number five on the all time nonfiction chart.  The number three film, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, looks safe in its position with $77.4M, as the Bieber doc is shedding screens and ticket sales with each week.

Belieb It! Justin Bieber's 3D Concert Doc #2 Nonfiction Opening Weekend All Time

WIth estimates of the $30M weekend, the new Paramount 3D concert documentary JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER jumped onto the list of the top 10 nonfiction features of all time (it currently stands at #8) and is now the number two concert film ever, behind MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT.

The weekend take is the second highest weekend gross for a nonfiction film in history, after last year's JACKASS 3D, which was also distributed by Paramount.  For comparison, THIS IS IT had a $23M opening weekend (although it launched on a Wednesday and had already banked $13M by the time the weekend arrived).  JACKASS 3D opened with an astounding $50M back in October.

NEVER SAY NEVER was directed by John Chu (who had previous worked on Disney's STEP UP movies).  Chu replaced Academy Award winner Davis Guggenhim, who had been attached to the project but dropped out reportedly to focus on the release of WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN'.  Coincidentally, the film that NEVER SAY NEVER knocks out of the top ten all-time is Guggenheim's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

Halfway Thru 2010, THE OATH Leads in Honors, OCEANS Leads in Cash

We're more than six months into 2010, a year that is proving remarkably rich for documentary film, with a strong list of titles vying for festival (and future critics') laurels and for box office success.  We unveiled our 2010 Nonfiction Honor Roll in May (it's now updated to include more recent festivals like Silverdocs, LAFF and Edinburgh) and today we kick off the 2010 Nonfiction Feature Box Office.  [The latter is called a Top 20, but since it's still early as far as the theatrical year goes, we've currently just got the top 10.]

Laura Poitras' THE OATH still commands the Honor Roll, with 7 awards from top festivals, including a Best Documentary win at Edinburgh.  Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL is a close 2nd with 6 prizes, including the Cinematic Vision Award at AFI Silverdocs and the Documentary Grand Jury prize at Seattle.  Other films with awards from multiple festivals include BUDRUS, ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE, A FILM UNFINISHED. FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, GASLAND, LAST TRAIN HOME, MY PERESTROIKA, PRESUMED GUILTY, RESTREPO, STEAM OF LIFE, THUNDER SOUL, WAR DON DON and Lucy Walker's Audience Award favorite WASTE LAND.

In theatres, Disneynature's release of OCEANS still leads the year, with nearly $20M in box office, followed by BABIES with nearly $7.5M, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (about to cross the $3M threshold) and JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, currently at $2.3M.  Both RESTREPO and Oliver Stone's SOUTH OF THE BORDER have shown solid numbers in thus far limited release.  Frederick Wiseman's LA DANSE was a surprise box office hit released in late 2009.

The Monday Brief: Metz' ARMADILLO is the Latest Dane Success, EXIT is a DIY Phenom and a First Amendment Fund for Berlinger

Happy Monday one and all as the Cannes Film Festival has come to a close (and a certain television show has stopped eating my Twitter feed - God, please) and we head into the beginning of summer (with the June onslaught of film festivals soon upon us...

In the documentary world, the big news out of Cannes this year centered on two films - the premiere of Charles Ferguson's much lauded INSIDE JOB and the latest film from Danish filmmaker Janus Metz, ARMADILLO, which took the Grand Prix at La Semaine Internationale de la Critique.  ARMADILLO is reported to be the first documentary ever chosen for a competition slot in the Critics Week section.

Metz made a mark stateside in 2009 when his LOVE ON DELIVERY and its companion piece TICKET TO PARADISE played at a number of US festivals.  But ARMADILLO, which was one of the projects at CPH:DOX's 2009 Pitch Forum, should make many more doc film fans aware of Metz.  The film, which follows four young Danish soldiers in Afghanistan (shades of RESTREPO)  is already stirring controversy in Denmark over military tactics and reigniting debate there over the country's involvement in that war.

ARMADILLO's triumph further emphasizes (if one needed proof) that Denmark's documentary community is one of the most creative and vibrant in the world.  In the last few years, the Danes have produced such award winning films as THE MONASTERY - MR. VIG AND THE NUN, GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL, THE RED CHAPEL, THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS and BURMA VJ.

And while Ferguson's INSIDE JOB didn't play in Cannes' main competition (where FAHRENHEIT 9/11 remains the only nonfiction film to have ever won the Palme d'Or), critic Todd McCarthy (no stranger to documentary) suggests that it should have:

"Given the dearth of strong competing entries as well as the scarcity of American pictures this year, it would have been a great boost both to Cannes and the film to include INSIDE JOB in the competition."

We summed up further Cannes crix reax to Ferguson's latest here.  Sony Pictures Classics is due to release INSIDE JOB here in the fall, where box office for current events docs has not been sensational - Michael Moore's CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY is the only 2009 current events/political docu to break $1M and even that was considered a disappointment by his standards.  In 2008, only the conservative intelligent design flick EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED surpassed $1M.

But non-issue docs continue to find success, at least in limited portions, and it's hard to imagine a more successful recent release - particularly in terms of word-of-mouth - than EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP.  The art world hype vs. reality film by Banksy continues to shake up the North American box office.  Now in 43 theaters, the film declined just 5% from the previous weekend, for an estimated average of $4,721 per screen - which is a better per screen take than any of the films in the box office top 20.

EXIT, whose DIY distribution was profiled by indieWIRE's Peter Knegt last month, now has an estimated cume of $1.6M and seems certain to get to $2M shortly, perhaps by the end of the Memorial Day weekend.

Meanwhile, the spring's two wider releases continue to take in money, even as they begin to cede their screens to the big summer (and pre-summer) films.  Disneynature's OCEANS now stands at $18.5M and looks to close out near (if not over) the $20M mark, while Focus Features' BABIES took in another $700K this weekend and now stands with more than $5M at the box office.

The weekend's major documentary release, Marshall Curry's Tribeca champ RACING DREAMS, seems to have stalled out on its way to theaters.  Estimates have that film taking in just $652 on its 33 screens, a disappointing number to be certain, particularly for a film that debuted with talk of stratospheric success and Oscar nominations.  We finally took in the film at the Ashland Film Festival last month and it seems certain RACING DREAMS will find an audience on television and DVD.

Switching gears (pardon that pun), news continues to unfold in the Joe Berlinger/CRUDE/Chevron case.  Berlinger's lawyers were granted a temporary stay by Lewis Kaplan, the US District Court judge that ruled Berlinger's raw footage could be subpeona'd by Chevron, while they appeal for his decision to be overturned.  Kaplan made clear, however, that he doubted his ruling would overturned.

Meanwhile, the filmmakers have taken to Kickstarter to attempt to raise $20,000 to support their legal efforts.  As of this writing, the CRUDE First Amendment fund has raised nearly $8K.  Here at the blog, nearly 250 people have signed onto the Open Letter of Support for Berlinger and there is talk bubbling of more high profile efforts in the coming weeks.

And finally: Tom Roston has a list and he's checking it twice.  The former Premiere writer, now contributing to the POV blog, is about to spring a list of the 50 Most Powerful People in Documentary:

"How did I come up with this list? In this case, I defined power by imagining a room full of filmmakers, producers, funders and programmers. If you are a documentary filmmaker, then who would you most want to be in that room advocating for your film? We're talking about the power to get your movie made exactly as you want it — and giving it the best chance to be seen by as many people as possible."

No names just yet, but one wonders if - as tales used to be told about publicists and others scrambling to get clients on similar lists by Premiere and Entertainment Weekly - Roston's mailbox is bulging with "helpful suggestions" right about now.  One also wonders if the list of 50 will be all individuals or whether a group of folks (the Sundance programmers for example) will take a single slot.

This week: Silverdocs announces its line-up.

The Monday Brief: Berlinger Supporters Number More Than 400, EXIT Hits $1M and Cannes In Progress

We're more than half-way through the fifth month of 2010.  Can summer be far behind?...

The Joe Berlinger/Chevron/CRUDE raw footage-subpeona situation continues to resonate throughout the nonfiction community.  An open letter of support for Berlinger, spearheaded by Patrick Creadon and Doug Blush - and supported by the IDA, was released on Wednesday and signed by nearly 200 folks in the documentary community.  Oscar winner Errol Morris signed onto the letter on Thursday, along with another 200 people (as of Monday) in the comments section here and 40 on the IDA's website.

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, who both signed the letter, wrote in an opinion piece that while all eyes are on the oil spill in the gulf, "there's another important story involving Big Oil and pollution -- one that shatters not only the environment but the essential First Amendment right of journalists to tell truth and shame the devil":

"Some of the issues and nuances of Berlinger's case are admittedly complex, but they all boil down to this: Chevron is trying to avoid responsibility and hopes to find in the unused footage -- material the filmmaker did not utilize in the final version of his documentary -- evidence helpful to the company in fending off potential damages of $27.3 billion.

This is a serious matter for reporters, filmmakers and frankly, everyone else. Tough, investigative reporting without fear or favor -- already under siege by severe cutbacks and the shutdown of newspapers and other media outlets -- is vital to the public awareness and understanding essential to a democracy. As Michael Moore put it, "The chilling effect of this is, [to] someone like me, if something like this is upheld, the next whistleblower at the next corporation is going to think twice about showing me some documents if that information has to be turned over to the corporation that they're working for.""

More coverage of the letter at The Wrap, firedoglake blog and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

At the theatrical box office, it was more of the same that we've seen the past couple weeks.  The Banksy/Shepard Fairey/Mr. Brainwash documentary EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP continued its stellar DIY run - taking in another $230K for an estimated cume-to-date of $1,284,000.  That makes EXIT the third million-dollar-doc of 2010, following the success of Disneynature's OCEANS ($17.7M and counting, although now seemingly less likely to reach $20M) and Focus' BABIES, which declined a respectable 53% in its second weekend, still taking in just over $1M.  BABIES is now just shy of $4M.

The Monday Brief: Debunking Brandeis Citation in Berlinger Ruling, BABIES Rule Mother's Day & Hot Docs Wrapping

With the close of Hot Docs yesterday, we can finally exhale after a non-stop stretch of key film festivals that has swallowed up most of spring thus far - and for the majority of us (certainly those not headed to the south of France), we now have a few weeks to rest before the June festival onslaught hits...

That gives us a moment to reflect on the year thus far and the film's that are making an impact.  Earlier today we posted the first edition of the 2010 Nonfiction Feature Honor Roll, our annual round-up of festival (and, later in the year, critics and end-of-year) prizes.  No surprise that Laura Poitras' THE OATH - which has seemingly shown up with raves at every major fest this year - leads this year's list, followed by Jeff Malmberg's SXSW sensation MARWENCOL and Lucy Walker's audience fave, WASTE LAND.

But it's a film from 2009 that leads The Brief today and what it may mean for nonfiction filmmakers everywhere...

Many are still trying to figure out just how to react to the surprisingly broad ruling from US District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that may force filmmaker Joe Berlinger to turn over more than 600 hours of outtakes from his film, CRUDE, to the Chevron corporation.  As we noted Saturday, Chevron argued that the outtakes may help them defend themselves in a lawsuit brought by Ecuadorians over water contamination, charges which were detailed in Berlinger's film.

In his decision, Kaplan referenced former Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis' comment that "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants", which didn't sit well with Frank Smyth of the Society to Protect Journalists:

"The irony in the judge’s choice of language is as thick as crude...

 

What would the late Supreme Court Justice Brandeis think? He made his famous sunlight statement about the need to expose bankers and investors who controlled “money trusts” to stifle competition, and he later railed against not only powerful corporations but the lawyers and other members of the bar who worked to perpetuate their power."

This news is sure to keep developing in the days and weeks to come.

Meanwhile, after months of slow going at the documentary box office, this weekend saw three major debuts and the continued success of the Disneynature franchise.

The Brief: OCEANS and Bansky Reap Box Office Rewards, THE OATH Caps an Award-Winning April and Tribeca in Progress

We're dead in the middle of the spring festival onslaught, with Tribeca and San Francisco just hitting their mid-points, IFFBoston about to wrap its event and Hot Docs getting ready to kick-off tomorrow.  We went on our own mini-fest-tour earlier this month (Ashland and Sarasota - more on this later, but let's just say our assessment bore out) and we're trying to get our footing before we head up to Toronto next week.  So much is happening, and here's a brief sample in a mid-week brief...

It was a big weekend at the theatrical box office for OCEANS, the new film from Oscar nominated filmmaker Jacques Perrin (WINGED MIGRATION) and distributor Disneynature.  The film took in just over $6M for the weekend, after an Earth Day debut at the top of the charts on Thursday.  That takes the film to $8.4M so far, with expectations that the film will reach the $10M mark by today.  OCEANS took in nearly $5K per screen, which was the best average in the top 10.

Mystery seems to be paying off huge dividends for EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, the curious documentary from the anonymous artist known as Banksy.  The film has taken in an $390,000 from a handful of screens (it expanded from 8 to 11 this weekend) for the best per screen average of any film in release, according to indieWIRE's weekly box office report, which also gives the back story of EXIT's unusual DIY release by sales rep John Sloss and a team that included Richard Abramowitz.

Also from Abramowith, Tom DiCillo's Doors documentary, WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE, took in another $24K in its third weekend, taking that film's total to just under $165,000.

As mentioned, Tribeca is heading for its closing weekend, with much of the doc talk surrounding the unstoppable force that is Alex Gibney.  With two completed films (and a segment of omnibus doc FREAKANOMICS) at this year's fest, Gibney made a huge splash with his not-yet-completed UNTITLED ELIOT SPITZER FILM (we summed up the press coverage here) over the weekend.

But Gibney wasn't the only news at Tribeca.  indieWIRE's Brian Brooks examines a potential controversy in the wake of Deborah Scranton's EARTH MADE OF GLASS.  Cinematical's Christopher Campbell has a review of FREETIME MACHOS (which is also headed to Hot Docs).  And at Movieline, S.T. Vanairsdale has a recap of the Q&A following Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's popular JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK.  POV's Tom Roston finds that the Rivers doc changes his mind about the subject.

As the other April fests start wrapping up, it's worth noting the exceptional run Laura Poitras' THE OATH is having.  It began the month with a Special Jury Prize at Full Frame, and followed that with two Grand Jury notations - at Sarasota and at IFFBoston.  The film is heading to Hot Docs and then to the IFC Center where Zeitgeist will kick off its theatrical run next Friday.  We'll be hosting the LA premiere at Cinefamily on May 18. 

We finally got a chance to see THE OATH In Sarasota and it's a knockout, subtle and brilliant with one of the best scores in a documentary in years.

Two more of our favorite docs of 2010 also scored at Sarasota and Boston.  Josh Fox' GASLAND, which has been getting deserved raves all year, received the Special Jury prize in Sarasota and Jeff Malmberg's terrific, complex MARWENCOL picked up the same award at IFFBoston.  All three films will rank among the best in nonfiction in 2010.

Stuff worth reading:  Yance Ford recaps her experience at Full Frame and considers the once and future festival.  Raphaela Niehausen writes about Steven Soderbergh's appearance at Stranger Than Fiction for his Spalding Gray doc AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE.  Anthony Kaufman considers the "documentary fictions" of the Soderbergh film and the Banksy doc.  Kaufman also writes about the STF screening of Doug Block's latest THE KID GROWS UP.  And completing his doc trifecta, Anthony writes about "art docs" for IFC.com.  And finally, a post over at the IDA's news blog on a recent Supreme Court decision sparks a debate on first ammendment freedoms and animal cruelty.

OCEANS Opens #1 on Earth Day

Disneynature's latest Earth Day offering, OCEANS, opened at the top of the theatrical box office on Thursday.  The film took in nearly $2.5M for the day - the highest daily gross for a nonfiction title since MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT opened at #1 during last Halloween weekend.

Friday estimates show OCEANS with another $2M+ day and the highest per theater average in the top 10.  Although the film is projected to come in 7th or 8th for the weekend (Saturday and Sunday matinees will likely make the difference), it should end the weekend with a 4-day opening of more than $8M, which would top the grosses of all but four of 2009's nonfiction offerings (THIS IS IT, EARTH, JONAS BROTHERS and CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY).