Box Office: ‘Linsanity’ Slam Dunks With Best Documentary Average of the Weekend

Yeah, I went there with the basketball-related headline. Linsanity [review], a biographical film about NBA star Jeremy Lin, deserves the kind of cheesy notice usually reserved for mainstream movies. And even more appropriate to the doc, it had sort of an underdog showing at the box office this weekend. Its per-theater average was only the second-best thanks to the record-breaking 3D showings of Gravity. But $11k on nine screens for a total of $99k is nothing to scoff at, especially since it’s also been the number one doc on iTunes the past few days.

Even if it also wasn’t the best take for a documentary. Number one would be the hybrid concert film Metallica Through the Never, which expanded to non-IMAX screens yet still dropped from its debut, earning $683k. As for the more pure nonfiction film entries, still performing well were Inequality for All [review] with $139k and Generation Iron with $134k. Outside of the weekend, the Kirk Cameron doc Unstoppable took in more than $1m during its second Fathom Events special screening on Thursday, bringing its tally up to $3.2m.

Also bowing this weekend was Let the Fire Burn, which actually started last Wednesday and racked up a decent $8k for those first five days on a single screen ($5k was from the weekend), Dislecksia: The Movie, another single-screener, which grossed $2k, and The Summit [review], which took in only $21k on almost as many screens as Linsanity. Not reporting yet are the new releases Bridegroom, The Institute, A River Changes Course [review] and Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde.

Here is the reported weekend box office (with averages in parenthesis) for 10/4/13–10/6/13, including new and continuing releases:

1. Metallica Through the Never — $683k ($1.2k)

2. Inequality for All — $139k ($3.4k)

3. Generation Iron — $134k ($1.9k)

4. Linsanity — $99k ($11k)

5. One Direction: This Is Us — $33k ($0.6k)

6. The Summit — $21k ($2.6k)

7. Muscle Shoals — $17k ($4.2k)

8. Salinger — $14k ($0.7k)

9. After Tiller — $10k ($3.3k)

10. When Comedy Went to School — $7k ($0.8k)

11. Let the Fire Burn — $5.2k ($5.2k)

12. Good Ol’ Freda — $4.8k ($0.3k)

13. Blackfish — $3k ($0.3k)

14. Dislecksia: The Movie — $2.2k ($2.2k)

15. Free the Mind — $1.8k ($0.4k)

16. Jewtopia — $1.12k ($0.6k)

17. Terms and Conditions May Apply — $1.09k ($0.4k)

18. Stories We Tell — $0.8k ($0.4k)

19. The Act of Killing — $0.44k ($0.1k)

20. The Informant — $0.37k ($0.1k)

21. Men at Lunch — $0.23k ($0.23k)

22. Shepard and Dark — $0.21k ($0.21k)

23. Our Nixon — $0.13k ($0.13k)

24. Fire in the Blood — $0.11k ($0.11k)

And here is the current top 25 doc box office for 2013 (note the changeover from millions to thousands):

1. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain — $32.2m
2. One Direction: This Is Us — $28.9m ($65.1m worldwide)
3. Hubble 3D (IMAX) — $4.9m
4. 20 Feet From Stardom — $4.7m
5. Unstoppable — $3.2m
6. To the Arctic (IMAX) — $2.9m
7. Metallica Through the Never — $2.7m
8. The Gatekeepers — $2.4m
9. Blackfish — $2.1m
10. Space Station 3D (IMAX) — $1.9m
11. Stories We Tell — $1.6m
12. Born to Be Wild (IMAX) — $1.56m
13. Girl Rising — $1.53m
14. Flying Monsters — $1.49m
15. Under the Sea 3D — $1.1m
     — -
16. 56 Up — $700k
17. Searching For Sugar Man — $686k
18. Deep Sea 3D (IMAX) — $668k
19. Salinger — $557k
20. Generation Iron — $541k
21. Chasing Ice — $530k
22. Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorfs — $510k
23. The Act of Killing — $441k
24. Sound City — $421k
25. Dirty Wars — $371k

Data pulled from Box Office Mojo and IMDb and Deadline and Religion News.