It's So Easy: Linda Ronstadt Documentary Debuts at Number One

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, earns impressive $16,000 per screen

Linda Ronstadt. Photo courtesy Greenwich Entertainment/CNN Films

A singer who ruled the Billboard charts is doing the same at the documentary box office.

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, the biographical film about one of America's most popular recording artists, debuted at number one over the weekend. The documentary by renowned filmmaking duo Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman made $113,235 in its opening frame, according to audience measurement firm comScore.

It played on just seven screens, earning an impressive $16,176 at each location.

​The Sound of My Voice documents Ronstadt's childhood in Tucson, Arizona, her move to Los Angeles in the late 1960s and rapid rise to fame - first with the Stoney Poneys and then as a solo artist. She is the only singer to find huge success in such a wide range of musical genres: rock, pop, country, R&B, Mexican canciones and lyric opera (The Pirates of Penzance).

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Producer James Keach on the wonders of Linda Ronstadt's voice:

Linda Ronstadt was by no means the only music documentary to crack the top five over the weekend. 

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles, about the Broadway mega-hit musical Fiddler on the Roof, took second place, earning almost $100,000. In three weeks of release the documentary by Max Lewkowicz has made just under $300,000, comScore reports.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool came in fourth place over the weekend, collecting $58,120. The film about the jazz legend, directed by Stanley Nelson, has earned $154,144 in three weeks in theaters.

Meanwhile, Maiden continued navigating the box office waters towards a cume of $3 million. The film about the first all-women yachting crew to take part in the Whitbread Round the World Race improved its take to 2,960,135 overall, after 11 weeks of release.

In fifth place was Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, directed by Janice Engel. The documentary about the famed Texas journalist has made just under $200,000 in two weeks of release.

The top five documentaries at the box office, as compiled by comScore:
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