Updated: ‘Salinger’ Opens With Best Per-Screen Average of the Weekend for $87K Total

Updated with actual numbers Monday afternoon.

One Direction: This Is Us had no problem holding on to the top spot for documentary releases this weekend. It will no doubt remain on this throne for a while given both its distribution and popular subject. The Morgan Spurlock-directed boy band concert-based film brought in another $4m for a total gross to date of $23.9m. That makes it the 30th highest-grossing doc of all time, including IMAX and concert and hybrid (like Borat) titles.

Another very popular subject bringing crowds into theaters for some nonfiction entertainment was J.D. Salinger. Shane Salerno’s Salinger opened on only 4 screens Friday, but it still managed to take in a respectable $87k. That gave it the best per-screen-average (at $21.7k) of any movie out over the past three days (this time excluding IMAX, which always has a huge PSA). In fact, Salinger’s PSA was about double that of the next highest, the Mexican comedy Instructions Not Included. The doc expands to somewhere near 200 screens next weekend.

As for the other docs that opened Friday, Good Ol’ Freda had the second-best PSA with a total gross of $6.8k on a single screen. Not bad considering it also hit VOD on the same day. And Fire In the Blood was also in only one theater and earned $4.9k.

We don’t have estimated figures yet for the following: 99% — The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film, Best Kept Secret, Money For Nothing, Out of the Clear Blue Sky, I Am Breathing or Red Obsession. Wednesday opener La Maison De La Radio, meanwhile only has a listed gross through Thursday of $1k.

Also known only through Thursday are these ongoing documentary releases: Blackfish brought in another $167k; 20 Feet From Stardom another $143k; Cutie and the Boxer another $40k; When Comedy Went to School $23k; The Act of Killing $20k; Our Nixon $9k; Free the Mind $9k; American Made Movie $4K; The Trials of Muhammad Ali $4k; Far Out Isn’t Far Enough $3k; Stories We Tell $0.9k; Smash & Grab $0.8k; Evocateur $0.7k; More Than Honey $0.7k; A Band Called Death $0.7k; Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me $0.2k.

The only continuing doc release on the weekend chart is Spark: A Burning Man Story, which took in an extra $11k since Friday.

Update: Monday afternoon brought weekend grosses for the following new releases: Red Obsession, $5k; and Out of the Clear Blue Sky, $2k.

And for the following ongoing releases: 20 Feet From Stardom, $52k; Blackfish, $43k; When Comedy Went to School, $7k; Stories We Tell, $5k; The Act of Killing, $5k; Far Out Isn’t Far Enough, $3k; Evocateur, $1k; Guitar Innovators: John Fahey & Nels Cline, $0.5k; Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, $0.4k; Free Your Mind, $0.3k; and A Band Called Death, $65.

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 — $24m ($50m worldwide)
3. 20 Feet From Stardom — $4.5m
4. To the Arctic (IMAX) — $2.9m
5. The Gatekeepers — $2.4m
6. Blackfish — $1.9m
7. Space Station 3D (IMAX) — $1.87m
8. Stories We Tell — $1.6m
9. Born to Be Wild (IMAX) — $1.54m
10. Girl Rising — $1.53m
     — -
11. 56 Up — $700k
12. Searching For Sugar Man — $686k
13. Deep Sea 3D (IMAX) — $642k
14. Chasing Ice — $530k
15. Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorfs — $510k
16. Sound City — $421k
17. Dirty Wars — $371k
18. Hava Nagila: The Movie — $369k
19. The Act of Killing — $392k
20. Koch — $343k
21. Happy People: A Year in the Taiga — $339k
22. West of Memphis — $288k
23. Room 237 — $263k
24. A Place at the Table — $231k
25. No Place On Earth — $200k

Data pulled from Box Office Mojo and IMDb and Deadline.