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Top 12 Stories of 2003:#12: Documentaries find film success at the box office
Documentaries have long been the bastard stepchild of the film industry. Even those confusing subtitled films get more love at the box office than these non-fiction films, which tend to be relegated to PBS and cable television networks. There seemed to be no room for them on the big screen.
Then along came Bowling for Columbine. Agree or disagree with Michael Moore's polemic, there was no doubt that the film struck a chord with audiences. The film went on to gross an unheard-of-for-a-doc $20 million+ at the box office, and even broke the Oscars' streak of avoiding any documentary with even a whiff of box office success like the plague, picking up the Best Documentary award at the Academy Awards. This was coupled with mainstream success of films such as Jackass: The Movie (which is technically a documentary) and The Blair Witch Project (a fake documentary). Though they may not fit the normal documentary mode, they did show that the public would be willing to watch on the big screen something filmed with the technical aesthetic so often associated with documentaries, for those filmmakers don't often have the budget to film with the most advanced equipment and are limited in that by filming real events, they can't always control things such as lighting, subject, etc.
The Academy also helped the cause by making a larger theatrical run a requirement for nomination. The result was that film distributors were able to successfully market documentaries to audiences and find profitable results in theatrical releases of these films. We may not be talking Lord of the Rings numbers here, but several documentaries were able to outgross Gigli. It's a welcome trend that will hopefully continue. Some notable documentary box office successes from 2003 are Ghosts of the Abyss, $15.2 million; Winged Migration, $10.8 million; Tupac: Resurrection. $7.7 million; Spellbound, $6.0 million; The Real Cancun, $3.8 million; Step into Liquid, $3.7 million; Capturing the Friedmans, $3.1 million; and DysFunktional Family, $2.2 million. (Dan Krovich/BOP)
The Top 12 Stories of 2003:Friday, December 19#12: Documentaries find box office success #11: The Passion production causes controversy Monday, December 22 #10: Hulk screener leaks #9: Greatest movie trilogy of all time comes to an end Tuesday, December 23 #8: Johnny Depp, box office star #7: Disney owns summer Friday, December 26 #6: North America to movie sequels: thanks but no thanks #5: Arnold the Governator Monday, December 29 #4: Gigli bombs Tuesday, December 30 #3: The Matrix sequels fall far short Wednesday, December 31 #2: Finding Nemo becomes top grossing movie of the year Thursday, January 1 #1: MPAA attempts to ban screeners |
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Thursday, October 31, 2024
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