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- Box-office hits of Documentary film
- by HWANG Hee-yun / Nov 21, 2017
- Tell the truth!
Documentary is no longer a minor genre. These days, we can see various documentary films competing with thriller and romance films for box office superiority. From a late actor’s eponymous biography, I Am Heath Ledger to My Love, Don't Cross That River (2014) director JIN Mo-young’s new documentary Old Marine Boy, a variety of documentaries are competing with fiction films.This is not only the case in Korea. Documentary films have seen their popularity increase as the development of new material and forms for the genre has led to an increase in audience-friendly content. Michael Moore, who famously shouted “Shame on you, Mr. Bush!” at the Academy Awards, maximized the commercial potential of documentary films. He was noted for his documentary on gun violence, Bowling For Columbine (2003), and attracted worldwide attention for revealing possible causes of the 9/11 New York terror attack in Fahrenheit 9/11. Released in 2004, Fahrenheit 9/11 is the highest grossing documentary of all time at the U.S. box office.In Korea, My Love, Don't Cross That River was the top grossing documentary film of 2014. The film made history among documentaries, drawing over 4.8 million viewers while Fahrenheit 9/11 brought about 500,000 moviegoers in Korea that year. In addition, many documentary films have been well received by audiences: social documentaries like Old Partner (2009, 2,962,897 viewers), OUR PRESIDENT (1,854,787 viewers), Moo-hyun, Tale of Two Cities (2016, 193,578 viewers), Spy Nation (2016, 143,824 viewers) and Criminal Conspiracy (260,102 viewers), religious documentaries like Don't Cry for Me Sudan (2010, 441,707 viewers) and Seo Seo-pyeong, Slowly and Peacefully (122,557 viewers), art documentaries like Michael Jackson’s This Is It (2009, 130,746 viewers) and environmental documentaries like Earth (2007, 216,755 viewers).
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