A Strong Crop of Documentaries, but Barely Seen - NYTimes.com

A Strong Crop of Documentaries, but Barely Seen - NYTimes.com: "In a year when “The Expendables,” a fact-free action thriller, has so far outsold “The Social Network,” a nonfiction drama, the top-ranked film with roots in the real was “Jackass 3D.” That film, part of a series that chronicles dopey stunts — and appears to be in a class by itself, as the documentary world doesn’t much bother with it — was ranked No. 19 as the year ended, with ticket sales of about $117 million for Paramount.

The year’s top box-office draw was “Toy Story 3,” from Disney, which had about $415 million in ticket sales, followed by a long list of fantasies, comedies and a couple of reality-bending dramas, “Inception” and “Shutter Island,” with Leonardo DiCaprio. (Total domestic sales for the year were about $10.56 billion, just short of last year’s $10.6 billion, though theater attendance dropped about 5.36 percent, according to estimates by Hollywood.com’s box-office analyst, Paul Dergarabedian.)

Even critically admired documentaries like “Inside Job,” about Wall Street’s collapse, or “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” about the elusive street artist Banksy, fell short of marks that were set by films like “Super Size Me,” “Religulous,” and Michael Moore’s hit, “Fahrenheit 9/11.”"