Box Office Performance for Documentary Movies in 2005

Rank	Movie	Genre	MPAA	2005 Gross	Tickets Sold	Inflation- Adjusted Gross
1	March of the Penguins	Documentary	G	$77,413,017	12,076,914	$86,712,243
2	Sharks 3D	Documentary	Not Rated	$8,500,000	1,326,053	$9,521,061
3	Space Station	Documentary	Not Rated	$8,157,018	1,272,546	$9,136,880
4	Mad Hot Ballroom	Documentary	PG	$8,045,515	1,255,151	$9,011,984
5	Aliens of the Deep	Documentary	G	$7,541,784	1,176,565	$8,447,737
6	Wild Safari 3D	Documentary	Not Rated	$6,657,557	1,038,620	$7,457,292
7	Magnificent Desolation	Documentary	Not Rated	$6,034,219	941,376	$6,759,080
8	Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room	Documentary	Not Rated	$4,064,421	634,075	$4,552,659
9	Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids	Documentary	R	$3,355,818	523,529	$3,758,938
10	Rize	Documentary	PG-13	$3,278,611	511,484	$3,672,455
11	Grizzly Man	Documentary	R	$3,174,085	495,177	$3,555,371
12	The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill	Documentary	G	$3,041,591	474,507	$3,406,960
13	Bugs!	Documentary	Not Rated	$2,757,946	430,257	$3,089,245
14	NASCAR: The IMAX Experience	Documentary	PG	$1,991,838	310,739	$2,231,106
15	Murderball	Documentary	PG-13	$1,523,883	237,735	$1,706,937
16	Paperclips	Documentary	G	$1,079,433	168,398	$1,209,098
17	Galapagos	Documentary	Not Rated	$946,520	147,663	$1,060,220
18	What the #$'! Do We Know	Documentary	Not Rated	$849,898	132,589	$951,989
19	First Descent	Documentary	PG-13	$739,690	115,396	$828,543
20	Inside Deep Throat	Documentary	NC-17	$653,621	101,969	$732,137
21	Dust to Glory	Documentary	PG	$639,990	99,842	$716,866
22	Gunner Palace	Documentary	PG	$607,502	94,774	$680,477
23	Ghosts of the Abyss	Documentary	G	$487,507	76,054	$546,068
24	Ballets Russes	Documentary	Not Rated	$455,413	71,047	$510,117
25	In the Realms of the Unreal	Documentary	Not Rated	$343,243	53,548	$384,475
26	Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela	Documentary	Not Rated	$312,141	48,696	$349,637
27	Watermarks	Documentary	Not Rated	$245,845	38,353	$275,375
28	Mondovino	Documentary	PG-13	$209,618	32,702	$234,800
29	New York Doll	Documentary	PG-13	$176,056	27,466	$197,206
30	The Untold story of Emmett Till	Documentary	Not Rated	$171,916	26,820	$192,568
31	Protocols of Zion	Documentary	Not Rated	$161,558	25,204	$180,965
32	Touch the Sound	Documentary	Not Rated	$136,047	21,224	$152,388
33	Deep Blue	Documentary	G	$129,854	20,258	$145,452
34	Music from the Inside Out	Documentary	Not Rated	$124,693	19,453	$139,673
35	My Date With Drew	Documentary	PG	$121,534	18,960	$136,133
36	Tarnation	Documentary	Not Rated	$113,902	17,769	$127,581
37	Darwin's Nightmare	Documentary	Not Rated	$97,614	15,228	$109,337
38	Gay Sex in the 70's	Documentary	Not Rated	$85,625	13,358	$95,910
39	The Future of Food	Documentary	Not Rated	$81,280	12,680	$91,042
40	The Nomi Song	Documentary	Not Rated	$74,216	11,578	$83,130
41	Searching for Wrong-Eyed Jesus	Documentary	Not Rated	$70,308	10,968	$78,750
42	Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire	Documentary	Not Rated	$67,100	10,468	$75,160
43	Lightning in a Bottle	Documentary	PG-13	$65,207	10,173	$73,042
44	Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes van Zandt	Documentary	Not Rated	$62,597	9,766	$70,120
45	Rock School	Documentary	R	$58,241	9,086	$65,237
46	The Boys of Baraka	Documentary	R	$48,567	7,577	$54,403
47	William Eggleston in the Real World	Documentary	Not Rated	$44,435	6,932	$49,772
48	A State of Mind	Documentary	Not Rated	$41,468	6,469	$46,447
49	The Goebbels Experiment	Documentary	Not Rated	$40,811	6,367	$45,715
50	Tell Them Who You Are	Documentary	R	$38,580	6,019	$43,216
51	After Innocence	Documentary	Not Rated	$36,004	5,617	$40,330
52	The Year of Yao	Documentary	PG	$34,699	5,413	$38,865
53	Reel Paradise	Documentary	R	$29,720	4,637	$33,294
54	Naked Fame	Documentary	Not Rated	$29,128	4,544	$32,626
55	Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst	Documentary	Not Rated	$28,506	4,447	$31,929
56	Lipstick & Dynamite	Documentary	Not Rated	$26,073	4,068	$29,208
57	39 Pounds of Love	Documentary	Not Rated	$25,467	3,973	$28,526
58	Emmanuel's Gift	Documentary	G	$23,578	3,678	$26,408
59	Voices in Wartime	Documentary	Not Rated	$20,702	3,230	$23,191
60	The Last Dispatch	Documentary	Not Rated	$20,684	3,227	$23,170
61	Three of Hearts	Documentary	R	$19,738	3,079	$22,107
62	Zizek!	Documentary	Not Rated	$19,561	3,052	$21,913
63	A League of Ordinary Gentlemen	Documentary	R	$18,326	2,859	$20,528
64	The 3 Rooms of Melancholia	Documentary	Not Rated	$16,080	2,509	$18,015
65	The Last Mogul: Life and Times of Lew Wasserman	Documentary	PG-13	$15,655	2,442	$17,534
66	Genesis	Documentary	G	$15,586	2,432	$17,462
67	One Bright Shining Moment	Documentary	Not Rated	$15,504	2,419	$17,368
68	Bright Leaves	Documentary	Not Rated	$15,415	2,405	$17,268
69	Wall	Documentary	Not Rated	$13,913	2,171	$15,588
70	Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There	Documentary	Not Rated	$11,917	1,859	$13,348
71	Up For Grabs	Documentary	Not Rated	$10,907	1,702	$12,220
72	Sunset Story	Documentary	Not Rated	$8,802	1,373	$9,858
73	Twist of Faith	Documentary	Not Rated	$8,129	1,268	$9,104
74	Writer of O	Documentary	Not Rated	$8,127	1,268	$9,104
75	Occupation: Dreamland	Documentary	Not Rated	$8,018	1,251	$8,982
76	A Decent Factory	Documentary	Not Rated	$6,395	998	$7,166
77	Aristide and the Endless Revolution	Documentary	Not Rated	$6,226	971	$6,972
78	The Grace Lee Project	Documentary	Not Rated	$5,965	931	$6,685
79	WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception	Documentary	Not Rated	$5,460	852	$6,117
80	Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land	Documentary	Not Rated	$4,930	769	$5,521
81	McLibel	Documentary	Not Rated	$4,337	677	$4,861
82	Howard Zinn	Documentary	Not Rated	$4,020	627	$4,502
83	Sacred Stage	Documentary	Not Rated	$3,927	613	$4,401
84	Swenkas	Documentary		$3,875	605	$4,344
85	Two by Scorsese	Documentary	Not Rated	$3,845	600	$4,308
86	The Aggressives	Documentary	Not Rated	$3,769	588	$4,222
87	This Divided State	Documentary	Not Rated	$3,724	581	$4,172
88	Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death	Documentary	Not Rated	$3,238	505	$3,626
89	Stolen Childhoods	Documentary	Not Rated	$2,996	467	$3,353
90	The Optimists	Documentary	Not Rated	$2,377	371	$2,664
91	With God on Our Side	Documentary	Not Rated	$1,806	282	$2,025
92	Making Grace	Documentary	Not Rated	$1,496	233	$1,673
93	Return to the Land of Wonders	Documentary	Not Rated	$1,338	209	$1,501
94	Carlos Castaneda: Enigma of a Sorcerer	Documentary	Not Rated	$1,312	205	$1,472
95	The Letter: An American Town and the 'Somali Invasion'	Documentary	Not Rated	$1,058	165	$1,185
96	Monumental: David Broners Fight for Wild America	Documentary	Not Rated	$842	131	$941
97	Proteus	Documentary	R	$815	127	$912
Total Gross of All Movies				$155,673,323
Total Tickets Sold					24,286,012
Total Gross of All Movies at 2008 ticket prices						$174,373,566

Note: This chart ranks movies by the amount they earned during 2005. It includes movies released in previous years that earned money during 2005. For example, a movie released over Thanksgiving in 2004 will most likely earn money in 2004 and 2005. Click on the individual movie to see its total gross over all the years in which it played.

Each box office year ends on the first Sunday of the following year. The next year starts the following day (Monday). For example, the "2004 box office year" ended on Sunday, January 2, 2005.

Inflation-adjusted figures are based ticket sale estimates, and may not be precise due to rounding errors.