It appears that this is a "must see" that most people "won't see".
"The only other newcomer in the Top 10 was conservative commentator Ben Stein's #8 documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed in which he takes the creationists' side against scientists in the evolution battle. Playing in 1,052 theaters, the pic distributed by Rocky Mountain Films earned $1.2M Friday for what should be a $3.4M weekend. But the per screen average was a feeble $1,130 (not the $3,000 erroneously rumored on the Internet), showing there wasn't any pent-up demand for the film despite an aggressive publicity campaign. So much for the conservative argument that people would flock to films not representing the "agenda of liberal Hollywood". (Just for comparison purposes: Michael Moore's most recent Sicko did $4.4 mil its opening weekend from only 441 theaters, and his Fahrenheit 9/11 did $23.9M its opening weekend from 868 venues.) "
"The only other newcomer in the Top 10 was conservative commentator Ben Stein's #8 documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed in which he takes the creationists' side against scientists in the evolution battle. Playing in 1,052 theaters, the pic distributed by Rocky Mountain Films earned $1.2M Friday for what should be a $3.4M weekend. But the per screen average was a feeble $1,130 (not the $3,000 erroneously rumored on the Internet), showing there wasn't any pent-up demand for the film despite an aggressive publicity campaign. So much for the conservative argument that people would flock to films not representing the "agenda of liberal Hollywood". (Just for comparison purposes: Michael Moore's most recent Sicko did $4.4 mil its opening weekend from only 441 theaters, and his Fahrenheit 9/11 did $23.9M its opening weekend from 868 venues.) "
You're comparing apples to oranges as far as movies go and a great debut to an exceptional debut for the rest. Expelled made it to #68 in all time box office receipts in its first weekend, only $15,000 less than Shut Up and Sing did in its entire run. It's already done more boxoffice than Jesus Camp. It won't take much more to break into the top 50 and top 25 is possible. Documentaries don't generally compete with movies, although Expelled has already done better than Redacted. Expelled also doesn't have the wide appeal to compete with documentaries like March of the Penguins or Farenheit 911 but your assesment is misleading, to put it politely, at best.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=documentary.htm