Doc box office: audiences cuddle with Warner Bros.' 'Pandas'

Kristen Bell narrates IMAX film on endangered bears 

Some of nature's most adorable creatures are proving irresistible to moviegoers.

The 3D IMAX nature film Pandas, about the effort to reintroduce some of the bears into the wild in their native China, claimed the top spot among nonfiction films in theatrical release over the weekend. It earned $155,303 in its premiere weekend, according to audience measurement firm comScore.

David Douglas and Drew Fellman directed the 45 minute-long film from Warner Bros. Pictures. Actress Kristen Bell handled the narrating duties.
​

It’s built around an attempt, by animal behavioral scientists, to take a panda named Qian Qian, born and raised in captivity, and train her to live in the wild.

--From the Variety review of Pandas

The success of Pandas knocked last weekend's number one film, Leaning Into the Wind, to second place. Thomas Riedelsheimer's documentary about "land" artist Andy Goldsworthy collected another $33,202 to push its total $to 283,415, comScore reported. 

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story took third place, upping its overall box office total to $677,017. Alexandra Dean directed the film about the late Austrian-born film star who moonlighted as a world-class inventor.

Fourth place went to Ramen Heads, a culinary doc about noodle and broth supremo Osamu Tomita. Its four week total stands at $46,511.

Coming in fifth was The China Hustle, a "Wall Street heist story about a still-unfolding financial crime so big, it has the power to affect all of our wallets," as the film's website puts it. The film directed by Jed Rothstein played on just six screens, amassing $46,511 in two weeks of release.

---

Related: Leaning Into the Wind documents artist known for hammering stone, crawling through hedges

Bombshell director on brilliant Hedy Lamarr: 'She belongs in the pantheon of great inventors'

---

The top five documentaries at the box office for the weekend of April 6-8, 2018, as compiled by comSore:

1. Pandas, directed by David Douglas and Drew Fellman
2. Leaning Into the Wind, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer
3. Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, directed by Alexandra Dean
4. Ramen Heads, directed by Koki Shigeno
​5. The China Hustle, directed by Jed Rothstein