As
Tribeca's first weekend passes, most talk has been on the admission by
Errol Morris that he paid -- or paid the expences of (depending on what story you read) -- some of
the prison guards interviewed in his latest film,
Standard Operating Procedure. But
Anthony Kaufman raises a much more pressing question in a story on
indieWIRE: "
Can Standard Operating Procedure Break the Political Doc Deadlock?"
Though it's not just political docs that are in trouble, films that I and many others thought would take hold on audiences (
My Kid Could Paint That,
Zoo,
Manda Bala) never took off, the political docs have taken the biggest hits.
An excerpt:
2008 duds include "Chicago 10" ($156,000), "Taxi to the Dark Side" ($248,200) and "Body of War" ($32,000). Morgan Spurlock's "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" opened in 102 theaters with a per-venue average of just $1,401 and dropped significantly this weekend. Compare that to the 41-theater debut of "Super Size Me," which garnered a $12,601 average, one can see how different the landscape is nowadays.
"Everyone is uninterested," said Roadside Attractions' Howard Cohen, who worked on the release of "Super Size Me" as well as this year's "Chicago 10." Even in markets where Oscar-nominated director Brett Morgen's super-energized retelling of the Chicago 1968 rabblerousers got four-star reviews, such as Washington D.C. ("the first great film of 2008," wrote the Washington Post), audiences were "absolutely indifferent," explained Cohen.
According to
Variety,
SOP grossed an estimated $14,916 from two theaters for a per screen average of $7,458.
There are a few more political docs in the pipeline over the summer, but what may get docs out of its funk are titles like
Sundance favorites
American Teen, which follows the senior year of a group of high school students in Indiana, and
Man On Wire, which recounts tightrope walker
Philippe Petit's illegal high-wire routine between the World Trade Center towers in the '70s. Two superb docs without a hint of war.
Though I have been wrong before...
Comments (1)
Why did a hand full of documentaries recently flop at the box office? I think you need to judge films indepently of each other and avoid announcing box office trends...
"Super Size Me" was a far better film then Spurlock's current mess.
Alex Gibney's movie's really deserve to be seen on TV as they have zero cinematic qualities and are way too dense for the average film goer (even if they are brilliant films).
Even though "Body of War" is a good film, one does not go "Phil Donahue, I must see his latest film"!
"Manda Bala" was also brilliant but rarely do films about corruption that connect frogs, plastic surgery and kidnapping make people run out of the house on saturday night...too eccentric.
As far as "Zoo", do we really have to wonder why people didn't flock to see a film about fucking horses?
"Chicago 10" is the only mystery to me...although "honey lets see that animated documentary about a court trial from the 60'sl"...isn't a very sexy sell.
I think everyone has gotten greedy. We are talking about American audiences here. If a doc makes a lot of money, it is usually more about entertainment value then a "must see" film.
my 2 cents.
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posted by @ 5/01/2008 1:55 PM
