"Meet the Patels" meets with more success at box office

Film from siblings Geeta Patel and Ravi Patel claims top spot again; Meru climbs above $2 mil. mark

The crowd-pleasing Meet the Patels is the top-grossing documentary at the box office for the second week in a row.

The film directed by sister and brother Geeta and Ravi Patel, about Ravi's hilarious experience with love and match-making, earned another $201,581 over the weekend, pushing its domestic cume to $495,5862, according to audience measurement firm Rentrak. 

The PG-rated doc played on 63 screens for a per screen average of $3,200, Rentrak reported.

Michael Moore has described Meet the Patels as the funniest documentary of the year (although I think Finders Keepers deserves consideration in that category). The Patels success is certainly incentive to keep the cameras rolling when you're on a family trip; according to the filmmakers the movie began as a vacation video.

Meanwhile, Meru, the breath-taking documentary from climber Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi, continued its rapid ascent at the box office, coming in second among documentaries with another $68,313 in ticket sales. That was enough to lift it above the $2 mil. summit after seven weeks of release.

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The biggest hit of the summer and fall continues to beAsif Kapadia's Amy, about the late British soul singer Amy Winehouse. Its domestic box office total now stands at $8,283,005, according to Rentrak.

It came in third over the weekend, adding nearly $20,000 from 22 locations. Rounding out the top three were Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine from director Alex Gibney and Welcome to Leith from directors Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker.

There's no funnier film in the movie theaters right now than "Meet the Patels" (with Geeta Patel and… https://t.co/iVUO7jZi61

— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) September 29, 2015

Super-proud of @geetavpatel and the success of the truly charming @MeetThePatels, which deserves to be seen at the cinema, with a crowd!

— Eddie Schmidt (@Eddie_Schmidt) September 27, 2015

Check out the doc @merufilm Sat Oct 3rd @ 2 pm @edmfilmfest A harowing doc about mountain climbers #eiff15 #yegfilm https://t.co/rjgsA8xBK3

— Christian Zyp (@Movingradio) September 29, 2015