When you think, “feature film” it’s usually about the latest fiction theatrical release, but there’s another type of feature film playing in theaters and on television, which is Documentary or Non-fiction feature length films. Not all feature length documentaries are “top grossing” candidates at the box office; as successful theatrically as Inside Job or one of Michael Moore’s films. Often they will be in local “art house” theaters for a week and then gone not to be seen again until Netflix picks them up and/or they come out on DVD. There are many types of documentary films from advocacy and socially relevant stories to anthropological and nature productions. The first feature length documentary to play in theaters world wide was Nanook of the North, considered by some to be an Anthropological or by today’s standards “salvage anthropology.” Directed by Robert Flaherty this film was made to tell a story and be entertaining enough to play in theaters.
Many current documentary films find their roots in early Broadcast television including Robert Drews, Direct Cinema, Primary and the work of Fred Friendly and Edward R Murrow.
Early Broadcast Television Documentaries
Network News productions like CBS’s 60 Minutes carry on a tradition started by Edward R Murrow and Fred Friendly with documentaries for television like Harvest of Shame and McCarthy Hearings. Public Television documentaries produced independently and by PBS Network affiliates like WGBH’s Front Line documentaries and PBS Network productions like The Civil War by Ken Burns are feature length and longer documentary films made for Television.
Cable – Non-Broadcast
Network News productions like CBS’s 60 Minutes carry on a tradition started by Edward R Murrow and Fred Friendly with documentaries for television like Harvest of Shame and McCarthy Hearings. Public Television documentaries produced independently and by PBS Network affiliates like WGBH’s Front Line documentaries and PBS Network productions like The Civil War by Ken Burns are feature length and longer documentary films made for Television.
Cable – Non-Broadcast
A number of Cable Channels like HBO, Showtime, Discover and others feature non-fiction programming with emphasis on a particular subject. They either originate the programming or pick it up from Independent Producers and Syndicators. The programming is a mixture of non-fiction subjects and documentary productions. A few of these documentaries played theatrically before coming to TV.
Theatrical Documentaries
Documentaries made with the specific goal of playing Theatrically, i.e. in the theaters may cover a wide range of subjects. Every year the Motion Picture Academy awards an Oscar for Best Feature Length Documentary. What qualifies a documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award is that it is being distributed commercially and has shown in theaters to the public.
Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North was the first feature length documentary to run in theaters worldwide. Since then there have been a steady stream of documentary films shown in theaters, however the average theatergoer can probably count on one hand how many documentaries they have seen in a movie theater.
Many documentaries make the festival and art house rounds but are not seen in first run theaters. So the financial return is limited. With the advent of DVD documentaries have the opportunity to reach a larger audience. The financial returns of the majority of feature length documentaries that get theatrical release do not gross huge amounts of money in the theaters but do well on DVD. However there are some notable exceptions that have done exceptionally well in the theatrical circuit.
According to internet sources like www.boxofficemoho.com, as of August 2008, three out of the top five grossing documentaries in the US have been Produced and Directed by Michael Moore.
The Number 1 top-grossing documentary is Fahrenheit 9/11, it played in 2011 theaters domestically, bringing in $119,195,000 at the Box Office.[i] The production budget is reported to have been $6,000,000, prints and advertising budget, $12,000,000. [ii] In addition the film grossed another $103,300,000 internationally bringing the world wide gross to $222,414,517.[iii]
The Number 3 documentary is Sicko, grossing $24,540,000 in 1117 theaters domestically. The production budget for Sicko is reported at $9,000,000. International Gross is reported at $9,000,000 bringing worldwide theatrical gross to $33,500,000.
Number 5 is Bowling for Columbine with $21,146,000 from a run in only 248 theaters nationally. Together three out five top grossing documentaries films grossed $164,881,000 released from October 2002 to June 2007iv
Three of the top five documentary theatrical release films have a total worldwide gross of $314,576,000.This does not include DVD Sales. As of this date the totals may be higher.
The Number 2 top-grossing documentary is March of The Penguins, at about $77, 500,000 domestically plus $52,000,000 internationally equals $129,000,500 worldwide. 
An Inconvenient Truth is Number 4 grossing about $24,146,161 domestically and another $25,603,190 internationally bringing the worldwide gross to $49,749,351.
While these documentary numbers may sound impressive they are small when compared to fictional feature films. For example, at this writing The Dark Knight, a fictional theatrical release has grossed $203.8 million in its first five days in release. Of note is that The Dark Knight cost about $185 million to make whereas most documentaries have much lower budgets. Released in November 2009, Twilight – New Moon, is reported to have grossed $160,000,000. Avatar, released in 2010 is reported to have reached two billion dollars gross revenues internationally!
International release revenues often equal or surpass domestic grosses for theatrical films. Documentary Films may or may not have appeal internationally since many focus on issues of interest to domestic audiences.
DVD SALES
DVD Sales may exceed theatrical box office revenue for many films.
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[i]Source TheNumbers.com/box office data
[i] Source All distribution data from TheNumbers.com/box office data and BoxOfficeMojo.com Gross numbers not adjusted for inflation and not including DVD Sales
iv Source BoxOfficeMojo.com –Dark Knight’ Begins Smashingly Brandon Gray July 23, 2008
Source BoxOfficeMojo.com — Brandon Gray October 5,2004