Documentary box office: 'Amazing Grace' off to hot start; 'Apollo 11' crosses $8 million

Long-awaited doc on Aretha Franklin live gospel recording scores impressive per-screen average

It has taken the better part of half a century for the Aretha Franklin gospel concert documentary Amazing Grace to reach theaters, but for many it's been worth the wait.

The film originally shot by director Sydney Pollack and finally completed by producer Alan Elliott opened on eight screens over the weekend, collecting $87,691, which works out to more than $10,000 per screen. That was easily the highest per-screen average of any nonfiction film in release.

It was in 1972 that Pollack and his crew filmed Franklin at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles as she recorded what became the top-selling gospel album of all time. But the audio and visual footage they captured was completely out of synch, making the prospect of editing it together a nightmare, a crushing reality that prompted Pollack to abandon the project. Before Pollack's death in 2008 he asked Elliott to complete the work, an immense labor-intensive technical and editorial challenge. Franklin then sued to keep the film from being released, but after her death last year the Franklin estate quickly agreed to let it finally reach the public.

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Expect a robust performance for Amazing Grace as it expands in the coming weeks. I more fervently recommend the film, which showcases Franklin at the peak of her vocal powers.

The numbers for Amazing Grace put the film in second place among documentaries over the weekend. The box office crown once again went to Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller's film on NASA's 1969 mission to land astronauts on the moon. It made almost $200,000, pushing its total past the $8 million mark, according to audience measurement firm comScore. Both Apollo 11 and Amazing Grace are from NEON Films.

Coming in third over the weekend was Peter Jackson's blockbuster documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. It has now made $17,778,187 in 16 weeks of release, per comScore.

Fourth place went to Alison Klayman's The Brink, which follows Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to Pres. Trump, as he attempts to spread what he terms "economic nationalism" around the world. Many would say his ideology is more accurately described as white nationalism.

Coming in fifth place over the weekend was the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, directed by E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. Their film about climber Alex Honnold's perilous ascent of Yosemite's El Capitan without ropes has made a total of $17.5 million. It has been playing in theaters an astounding 28 weeks.

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Steve Bannon, as seen in "The Brink." Photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures