Truth has a well-known liberal bias....Check out the top-grossing documentaries of all time

[marmar]

1 Fahrenheit 9/11 Lions $119,194,771 2,011 $23,920,637 868 6/23/04
2 March of the Penguins WIP $77,437,223 2,506 $137,492 4 6/24/05
3 Sicko LGF $24,540,079 1,117 $68,969 1 6/22/07
4 An Inconvenient Truth ParC $24,146,161 587 $281,330 4 5/24/06
5 Bowling for Columbine UA $21,576,018 248 $209,148 8 10/11/02
6 Madonna: Truth or Dare Mira. $15,012,935 652 $543,250 51 5/10/91
7 Winged Migration SPC $11,689,053 202 $33,128 1 4/18/03
8 Super Size Me IDP $11,536,423 230 $516,641 41 5/7/04
9 Mad Hot Ballroom ParC $8,117,961 202 $45,348 2 5/13/05
10 Hoop Dreams FL $7,830,611 262 $18,396 3 10/14/94
11 Tupac: Resurrection Par. $7,718,961 804 $4,632,847 801 11/14/03
12 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed RM $7,396,927 1,052 $2,970,848 1,052 4/18/08
13 Roger and Me WB $6,706,368 265 $80,253 4 12/22/89
14 The Aristocrats Think $6,377,461 234 $243,796 4 7/29/05
15 Spellbound (2003) Think $5,728,581 117 $17,508 1 4/30/03
16 Shine a Light ParV $5,058,442 277 $1,488,081 276 4/4/08
17 Touching the Void IFC $4,593,598 137 $96,973 5 1/23/04
18 The Fog of War SPC $4,198,566 261 $41,449 3 12/19/03
19 Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Magn. $4,071,700 151 $76,639 3 4/22/05
20 Paris is Burning Mira. $3,779,620 91 $310,127 23 8/9/91
21 Imagine: John Lennon WB $3,753,977 561 $1,412,213 561 10/7/88
22 Step Into Liquid Art. $3,681,803 91 $135,985 5 8/8/03
23 Born Into Brothels Think $3,515,061 127 $14,605 1 12/8/04
24 The Corporation Zeit. $3,493,516 28 $28,671 2 6/4/04
25 Rize Lions $3,336,391 352 $1,574,787 352 6/24/05
26 Grizzly Man Lions $3,178,403 105 $269,131 29 8/12/05
27 Wordplay IFC $3,121,270 154 $32,847 2 6/16/06
28 Capturing the Friedmans Magn. $3,119,113 78 $65,154 3 5/30/03
29 The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill Shad. $3,058,527 67 $36,731 5 2/9/05
30 Crumb Sony $3,041,083 56 $19,859 1 4/21/95
31 Unzipped Mira. $2,875,086 119 $71,275 2 8/4/95
32 When We Were Kings Gram. $2,789,985 92 $12,479 2 10/25/96
33 Comedian Mira. $2,751,988 244 $60,224 4 10/11/02
34 My Architect NYer $2,750,707 39 $37,929 2 11/12/03
35 Freeriders WM $2,750,064 30 $264,548 11 10/20/98
36 Control Room Magn. $2,589,616 74 $27,125 1 5/21/04
37 The Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure Cow. $2,453,083 40 $18,931 3 10/5/01
38 Snowriders 2 WM $2,287,639 - n/a - 10/15/97
39 A Brief History of Time Trit $2,279,692 45 $84,025 5 8/21/92
40 Riding Giants SPC $2,276,368 64 $134,400 26 7/9/04
41 Rivers and Tides Roxie $2,200,276 15 $12,256 1 6/26/02
42 The Endless Summer II NL $2,155,385 302 $657,292 302 6/3/94
43 Snowriders WM $2,068,490 - n/a - 10/16/96
44 Beyond the Mat Lions $2,053,648 298 $9,532 1 10/22/99
45 Endless Winter WM $1,966,454 - n/a - 10/20/95
46 Vertical Reality WM $1,951,429 - n/a - 10/19/94
47 The Story of the Weeping Camel Think $1,763,052 55 $21,767 2 6/4/04
48 Koyaanisqatsi IsAl $1,723,872 - n/a - 4/27/83
49 Life & Times of Hank Greenberg Cow. $1,712,385 31 $21,675 1 1/12/00
50 Who Killed the Electric Car? SPC $1,678,874 74 $45,138 8 6/28/06


http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=documentary.htm

[Ian David]

1. Hearts and Minds didn't make the list? n/t

[marmar]

2. If you click the link, I'm pretty sure it's on the complete list.....

n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. A bit off topic, but I laughed out loud at number 37

37 The Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure Cow

:rofl:

On a more serious note, I'm not at all surprised that the biggest money maker documentaries are liberal and politically/socially oriented.

Reality does indeed have a liberal bias.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Koyaanisqatsi (#48) could also perhaps be considered a liberal film

in its depiction of the effects of man on the natural environment.

[marmar]

6. True....'Caue we know conservatives don't think human activity has any impact on the environment....

n/t

[Ian David]

15. Every time you litter, Jesus comes and brings your trash to Heaven. n/t

[marmar]

18. LOL....

:spray:

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. I second that opinion - and also the effect of western society's poor stewardship of itself.

That is, the film's critique of consumerism, conformity, and addiction to progress through speed and expansion.

[Ian David]

14. Agreed! And only a Liberal would possess the correct pharmaceuticals to sit through the whole thing.

[Ian David]

5. The list adusted for inflation...

INTRODUCTION
Premier Pass members can adjust most of the charts on the site into estimated number of tickets sold or for ticket price inflation. Non-Premier Pass members can sample this feature on our all-time rated R chart. This is a helpful tool for converting box office earnings into a standard unit of measurement to help you better judge a movie's popularity and compare it to other movies released years or decades apart. You will find this feature most insightful on charts in the all-time, genre, franchise and people sections.

<snip>

Year Avg. Price
2008 Est.$6.88
2007 $6.88
2006 $6.55
2005 $6.41
2004 $6.21
2003 $6.03
2002 $5.81
2001 $5.66
2000 $5.39
1999 $5.08

<snip>

HOW WE ADJUST FOR INFLATION / EST. TICKETS
In most cases you can calculate the estimated number of tickets sold for a given movie by taking its box office gross and dividing it by the average ticket price at the time it was released. To adjust it for inflation (or see what it might have made in the past), you then multiply the estimated number of tickets sold by the average ticket price of the year you are converting to.

In some cases we are able to obtain the actual number of tickets sold and we use that figure to base adjustments off of (apart from its reported gross). Usually this is the case with older movies, especially those released in the 30s and 40s (like Gone with the Wind).

Some movies have been released several times over the decades, and we do account for this. For example, Snow White was released in 1937, but half of its lifetime gross is from re-releases in the 80s and 90s, so each of these releases is adjusted according to the year it earned its money.


More:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/about/adjuster.htm

I bet that if you adjust for inflation, "Expelled" doesn't rank #12 on the list anymore.

[marmar]

8. Is "Expelled" that NeoCon flick about conservatives being "silenced" in higher ed?

n/t

[Ian David]

10. Yes. It's about how unfair it is that stupid people aren't allowed to teach stupid shit in school.nt

[marmar]

27. Teehee.....

:D

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. I also offer #39: A Brief History of Time as a liberal offering,

since it deals with fact and/or best guesses based on data we have and sticks true to science, instead of trying to define the universe through a shitty, unfaithful, myopic reading of the Bible.

[Ian David]

11. I was thinking that, too. n/t

[marmar]

12. Noted....

n/t

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Yes, it probably wasn't a popular film in the Bible belt among conservatives

[AlCzervik]

16. #10, Hoop Dreams, my all time favorite doc.

[marmar]

17. That was a really good movie.....

n/t

[Beaverhausen]

26. A great film to be sure. Wordplay is also great!

who knew a doc about crossword puzzles could be so fun and interesting?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

19. Expelled I think is the only ideologically conservative film in the bunch, I think

although I haven't seen all of them on the list. The others are either apolitical or liberal. But I haven't seen every documentary.

[alarimer]

22. How the hell did it make so much money?

It is from busing in all those church groups for the screenings?

I am pretty sure their numbers are not legitimate.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Note the figures of the numbers of theaters it showed in

1052 in its opening week - more than any of them. And unlike just about every other film in the list, it didn't expand to any other theaters at all (well, it hasn't done so after a month, and given the universal critical panning it got, I'd say it's unlikely to). So there was a huge publicity drive which persuaded many places to pick it up before audiences had seen it, and then it's done almost nothing.

[angstlessk]

20. I am extremely surprised about 'Expelled' (ONE MORE REC TO GREATEST)

but I guess if you pay for your entire congregation to see the movie it gets a lot more money than it would otherwise, sorta like the NYT best sellers with the cross in front, indicating mass purchases??

[bonito]

21. K&R n/t

[KelleyKramer]

23. I highly recommend Who killed the electric car

Very revealing.

[marmar]

25. Yes....That was really good.

It also showed how GM is its own worst enemy.