How Much Did ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’ Earn at the American Box Office?

The collapse of the theatrical market isn't only about documentaries. "They're just the canary in the mine shaft," says Moore. The whole world of independent-film distribution is in crisis. Warner Bros. recently shut down its two specialty divisions, Warner Independent and Picturehouse, and folded New Line into its larger corporate entity. Paramount is shutting down Vantage, its art-house division, as a separate entity. Outside investors and hedge-fund groups that rushed into movie financing are retreating fast, their hands bloodied with red ink. The foreign-film market has shrunk to a trickle. The market is in a period of adjustment: fewer movies will be made and released.

Moore thinks a large part of the problem is in the theaters themselves. To prove his point he cites the nonprofit art-house venue he's running in his hometown, Travers City, Mich. Putting his patrons' wishes first, Moore installed cushy seats, banned cell phones, provided state-of-the-art sound and projection—and kept down the price of popcorn. The result: small movies such as "Lars and the Real Girl," "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and "I'm Not There" did better in this conservative Midwestern town than in most theaters in the country. So did many of the docs he's shown. "Going to the movies is an active experience," says Moore. "TV is passive."

THINKFilm's Urman still believes the right nonfiction film can succeed in theaters. It just has to be the first of its kind, or made by a marquee filmmaker. One such candidate is Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World." Shot in Antarctica, it's filled with breathtaking landscapes above and below the sea and populated by the fascinating, quirky outsiders who work at the McMurdo Station. Herzog's cranky, apocalyptic, mordantly funny narration ponders the survival of the human species—and his visions change the way you look at the world. On an awesomenees index, these sights outscore every computerized object hurled by the Hulk, Hancock or any other Hollywood superhero. There are some thrills only "the real" can provide. And as thrilling as they can be on your TV screen, on a big one they're even better.

Answer: A - $275,000

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