Ross Brothers Hybrid Film Tops The Documentary Box Office

The filmmakers' latest work of docufiction, Gasoline Rainbow, also had one of the best per-screen averages of the weekend.

Gasoline Rainbow (Department of Motion Pictures)

Yes, the “documentary box office” was topped by a film that’s not exactly a “documentary” this past weekend. Bill and Turner Ross’s Gasoline Rainbow is another feature from the fraternal filmmakers that’s tricky to classify. It’s filled with nonfiction moments but it’s wrapped around a shell of fictional conceit, as it follows a cast of non-actors on a road trip to the coast. The film opened at the IFC Center in New York City on Friday and grossed $6,241 at that single location. This same amount was therefore its per-screen average, placing it fourth in a ranking of all movies based on their average.

The next six titles on the documentary box office chart this week are more easily definable. Remembering Gene Wilder fell a notch while dropping 60 percent from the previous weekend’s gross, and Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus held in third place by increasing its theater count by two and its weekend gross by 97 percent. This caused Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg to fall to fourth, with its gross dropping 82 percent in its second weekend. Meanwhile, Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest returned to theaters on one screen this week, adding another $881 to its box office total as it reappeared on the chart.