Top 30 Documentary Hits of 2018

Each day a different year in review topic. Here's Glenn Dunks...

Documentaries had one of their biggest years on record in 2018. In fact, the upper realms of non-fiction at the North American box office started to look like what the foreign-language charts once looked like. There was at least one major cross-over smash, several very impressive eight-figure grossers, a selection of not insignificant titles that did over one-million, and a long list of niche titles that did business anywhere from respectable to disappointing depending on expectations and release size. The year even started strong for docs with 2017 hits Bombshell the Hedy Lamarr Story and Faces/Places continuing to earn tidy sums buoyed by word of mouth and an Oscar nomination respectively.

My column Doc Corner will continue in 2019 so here’s hoping the new year offers just as bountiful a crop. It's been good to see documentaries reaching the mainstream, zeitgeist conversation.

TOP 30 DOCUMENTARIES FOR 2018
Domestic Box Office Grosses Only - Figures as of February 17th, 2019. 🔺 = the film is still in theaters

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Watch at Home: Crazy Rich Asians, We the Animals, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

What's newly available for home viewing this week? 

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Blindspotting - Just discussed.
• Crazy Rich Asians -Currently the 12th biggest hit of the year, and hopefully the film that changes everything for Asian-American actors. We should probably watch and discuss again. Do you think it will be up for the Golden Globe Comedy or Musical Best Picture prize or SAG's Best Ensemble prize? I wonder.
• Kin - A sci-fi film about a weapon of unknown origin and two brothers in trouble.
• Skate Kitchen -a drama about skateboarding girls in Manhattan. Nominated for Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards.
• We The Animals - The nomination leader at the Spirit Awards this year. We've interviewed the director and we just love the film here at TFE. You really should see it and the book is a swift gorgeous read... the two experiences go well together but are also their own things, perfectly tailored to each medium.

New iTunes 99¢ Deals
• A Quiet Place - The Emily Blunt monster movie smash (and longshot Oscar hopeful) is this week's highlighted deal
• My Cousin Vinny - Revisit Marisa Tomei's hilarious Oscar-winning breakout
• Under the Skin - My personal #1 of 2014, the sensationally unsettling sci-fi masterwork from Jonathan Glazer and Scarlett Johannson in that brief run when Scarjo was experimenting with every movie and knocking it out of the park each time.

ALICE: Two people have asked me about President Pierce...well, complained. 
GILBERT: About what?
ALICE: The barking.
GILBERT: Well, I don't know what to say. President Pierce is a nervous creature and excited by animals larger than himself. 
ALICE: Almost all animals are larger than President Pierce.

Brand New Streaming
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix) - The Coen Bros originally planned this as a TV series. It became a standalone anthology movie. Add "President Pierce" to 2018's long list of memorable dogs onscreen. If you've watched it already which of the six stories is your favorite? 
• Loving Pablo (Prime) -Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem reunited onscreen but the movie didn't make any waves
• McQueen (Prime) -Our review. This highly praised doc about the fasion designer Alexander McQueen is eligible for the Documentary Feature Oscar. 

Box Office: Here "Mamma Mia!" goes again, to #2 on the charts

by Nathaniel R

In a surprising turn of events Mamma Mia! 2 couldn't inch past Equalizer 2 despite a much higher-grossing preceding film. The absence of Meryl versus the presence of Denzel musta tipped it because it was super close with a 34/35 million battle! Much closer than last time around when Mamma Mia! faced off with The Dark Knight on its own opening weekend back in 2008 for a 27/158 million opening weekend.

In limited release theaters were packed for two new films, the fashion doc McQueen, and the new police brutality drama Blindspotting, while A24's deeply felt and delightfully awkward Eighth Grade had a great second weekend.  What did you see this weekend?

Weekend Box Office Estimates (July 20th-22nd)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again	Eighth Grade
1.🔺 THE EQUALIZER 2 $35.8 *NEW*	1. 🔺 THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS $1.4 on 332 screens (cum. $4.5) REVIEW
2. 🔺MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN $34.3 *NEW* REVIEW	2. 🔺 LEAVE NO TRACE  $895k on 361 screens (cum. $3.6) TRAILER DISCUSSION
3.  HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 $23.1 (cum. $91)	3.  🔺EIGHTH GRADE $794k on 33 screens (cum. $1.1)
4. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP $16.1 (cum. $164.6)	4.  🔺 BLINDSPOTTING $332k on 14 screens *NEW*
5. THE INCREDIBLES 2 $11.5 (cum. $557.3)	5. 🔺 DON'T WORRY HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT $265k on 62 screens (cum. $380k)

Sorry to Bother You	McQueen
6. JURASSIC WORLD FALLEN KINGDOM  $11 (cum. $383.9)  REVIEW	6. 🔺 SANJU $220k on 112 screens (cum. $7.6)
7. SKYSCRAPER $10.9 (cum. $46.7)	7. RBG  $168k on 116 screens  (cum. $13.1)
8. THE FIRST PURGE $4.9 (cum. $60.1)	8. WHITNEY  $118k on 117 screens (cum. $2.7)
9. 🔺 UNFRIENDED DARK WEB  $3.4 *NEW*	9. 🔺 MCQUEEN $96k on 4 screens *NEW* REVIEW
10. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU  $2.8 (cum. $10.2)  REVIEW	10. SOORMA $78k on 50 screens (cum. $328K)
🔺 = new or expanding its theater count numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo