'Dark Horse' candidate wins doc box office race

Film about unlikely equine champion leaps over stiff competition

Over the Independence Day weekend it was a documentary from Great Britain that took the top spot at the box office.

Dark Horse, the story of how a barmaid from Wales bred a champion racehorse, finished number one, pushing its total box office earnings to $544,651, according to audience measurement firm Rentrak. This is its ninth week in theaters.

The film by Louise Osmond boasts a %97 rating on rottentomatoes.com. It won the audience award in the World Cinema Documentary category at Sundance in 2015.

Two photos of Dream Alliance, the champion racer at the heart of Dark Horse

Dream Alliance's career on the track was crowned by victory in the Welsh Grand National race at Aintree in 2010. That was an unlikely result for an animal often referred to as a "working class horse," because it was small donations from ordinary people in a downtrodden mining town that paid for his food and training.

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Coming in second over the holiday weekend was Weiner, the documentary about disgraced politician Anthony Weiner. Its total box office take now stands at 1,282,149, according to Rentrak. 

Josh Kreigman and Elyse Steinberg co-directed the film, which traces Weiner's effort to revive his political fortunes by running for Mayor of New York City. Early on he polled well, but revelations of his continued online flirtations -- some of which he conducted under the risible name "Carlos Danger" --  doomed his campaign.

Coming in third among documentaries over the long weekend was Morgan Neville's new film, The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. It has now grossed $238,051 in four weeks of release, Rentrak reported.

Fourth went to De Palma, the documentary about the great filmmaker Brian De Palma. Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow co-directed the film, which has made $134,421 in two weeks of release.

In fifth place -- the documentary Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words, the portrait of the late legendary musician. The film by Thorsten Schütte has earned $28,872 on a limited number of screens.