The 25 biggest documentary film openings of all time

Something unusual is happening right now: a documentary is drawing crowds to theaters at a level rarely seen for the genre.

The Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything,” directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, grossed $15.6 million in the US and Canada during its opening weekend in October.

That makes it the second-biggest theatrical docufilm debut ever, behind director Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which saw a nearly $24 million opening in 2004. “You Can See Everything” was filmed in the month before Holmes reported to prison in May 2023 after she was convicted of defrauding investors in connection with her now-defunct blood-testing company, Theranos.

Theatrical documentary premieres have become rarer since the streaming era began, as the genre has found a major audience on streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu.

Besides the new Holmes docufilm, only two others on the list were from this decade: “Melania” debuted to $7.1 million in January 2026, and “After Death,” a documentary about near-death experiences, opened to $5 million in 2023.

Still, theatrical docufilms were once a cultural force, especially in the 2000s and 2010s, when a wave of nature-, political-, and celebrity-focused ones premiered in theaters to much fanfare.

Here are the 25 highest-grossing traditional documentary film openings at the box office, using data from Box Office Mojo.

Several hit concert docufilms, like “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” earned more but were omitted from this list to focus on traditional nonfiction documentaries.