Michael Moore's 'SiCKO' Becomes the Third Highest Grossing Documentary of All Time Surpassing 'An Inconvenient Truth'
Sunday September 9, 6:56 pm ET
NEW YORK, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- "SiCKO," Michael Moore's highly acclaimed and entertaining expose of the American health care system, has just become the third highest grossing documentary of all time grossing $24.2 million domestically since it debuted in theaters on June 29th. "SiCKO," one of the most talked about films of the year, moved into third place taking the spot of previous record holder "An Inconvenient Truth" and behind Moore's previous film "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "March of the Penguins." The announcement was made today by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company.
Harvey Weinstein stated, "It's an incredible achievement for 'SiCKO' to have become the third highest grossing film in the history of documentaries. We are going to keep the movie in theaters and plan to re-release it during the Fall so that audiences continue to have a chance to experience this entertaining and profound documentary."
"SiCKO" has been playing in theaters nationwide for over nine weeks and had the second highest opening weekend of all time for a documentary.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070909/nysu016.html?.v=1Previously, about the reduction in the screens, from Variety:
After "Bowling for Columbine" and "Supersize Me" helped heat up the genre, the bar was set awfully high for docus, with "March of the Penguins," "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "An Inconvenient Truth" upping the stakes even more.
This year, though, the public's love affair with docs seems to have cooled, with 29 releases grossing less than $2 million combined. Many hope "Sicko" can add some spark to the genre, but the docu world is seeing a market correction.
Instead of a wide release of "Sicko," the bow has been scaled back to something closer to 800 runs, and TWC says it's hoping for a gross in the range of "Bowling for Columbine's" $21.6 million, not "Fahrenheit's" $119 million.
The return to rationality was perhaps inevitable for a corner of the film market that hasn't traditionally drawn huge buzz or box office.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117967053.html?categoryid=13&cs=1What has Michael Moore said? If there was some conspiracy by the US distributor to stifle his film, he surely wouldn't be quiet about it.