Weekend box office: 'Patels' edges 'Malala' for top spot

Amy breaks back into the top five; newcomer What Our Fathers Did connects

A still image from "Meet the Patels" featuring Ravi Patel (left), his parents, and sister Geeta (lower). Photo courtesy Alchemy/Four in a Billion Pictures

More and more people are meeting the Patels. 

​The comedic documentary Meet the Patels retained the top spot among non-fiction films  at the weekend box office, earning another $68,778, according to audience measurement firm Rentrak. 

The film directed by siblings Geeta and Ravi Patel has now crossed the $1.5 mil. mark in total box office returns. For most of its nine weeks of release the movie has been the number one documentary in theaters.

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Coming in second to Patels -- by a razor-thin margin -- was Davis Guggenheim's He Named Me Malala, the Oscar-winning director's affectionate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai and her family. Malala earned $68,406 over the weekend, less than $400 below Meet the Patels.

Malala remains well ahead of Patels in total revenue: per Rentrak, He Named Me Malala's cume stands at $2,428,596.

Laurie Anderson's inventive documentary Heart of a Dog came in third at the weekend box office with $26,925. [For my interview with Laurie click here]

Asif Kapadia's film Amy -- fresh off its nomination for an International Documentary Association Award -- returned to the top five with a weekend take of $8,313. In 19 weeks of release the documentary about the late singer Amy Winehouse has earned $8,380,168, according to Rentrak.

Rounding out the top five was the new film What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy from director David Evans. It made $8,132 in its opening weekend, on just a pair of screens.

The full top 10:

Title                                                                                 Weekend gross          Cume

1. Meet the Patels                                                          $68,778                         $1,552,924
2. He Named Me Malala                                               $68,406                         $2,428,596
3. Heart of a Dog                                                            $26,925                          $70,991
4. Amy                                                                              $8,313                             $8,380,168
5. What Our Father's Did: A Nazi Legacy                   $8,132                              $8,132
6. A Ballerina's Tale                                                        $7,113                              $88,525
7. Meru                                                                             $6,437                             $2,324,945
8. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution $4,414                             $482,396
9. Journey to the South Pacific                                     $2,619                            $7,062,153
10. Best of Enemies                                                        $2,230                            $891,997

​[Source: Rentrak]