--- title: Amy Winehouse Film Becoming One of the Biggest Docs in Years description: After just three weekends, Asif Kapadia's Amy is quickly becoming one of the top-grossing documentaries in recent years, excluding Disney nature films and concert docs.... canonical: https://time.com/3970718/amy-winehouse-documentary-disney-citizenfour/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-24T07:16:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:33:14.512Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Amy Winehouse Film Becoming One of the Biggest Docs in Years og:description: 'Amy' has become the top-grossing documentary of the year og:url: https://time.com/3970718/amy-winehouse-documentary-disney-citizenfour/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f81d9d07a49c35/698854423c1639856445856f/winehouse.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Amy WINEHOUSE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Amy Winehouse Film Becoming One of the Biggest Docs in Years twitter:description: 'Amy' has become the top-grossing documentary of the year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f81d9d07a49c35/698854423c1639856445856f/winehouse.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Amy Winehouse Film Becoming One of the Biggest Docs in Years by [Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter](https://time.com/author/the-hollywood-reporter/) ## Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter Jul 24, 2015 7:16 AM UTC  Amy Winehouse on May 28, 2007 Amy Winehouse on May 28, 2007Chris Christoforou—Redferns/Getty Images by [Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter](https://time.com/author/the-hollywood-reporter/) ## Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter Jul 24, 2015 7:16 AM UTC After just three weekends, Asif Kapadia’s _Amy_ is quickly becoming one of the top-grossing documentaries in recent years, excluding Disney nature films and concert docs. The critically acclaimed film recounts the life and death of British singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse, who died four years ago today of alcohol poisoning. She was 27. _Amy_ has become the top-grossing documentary of the year so far with $4.7 million for A24 and is a day or two away from eclipsing the Oscar-winning _20 Feet From Stardom_, which grossed $4.9 million in 2014. The documentary space is tough; _Citizenfour_, this year’s Oscar winner, topped out at $2.8 million after its release in fall 2014. Box office observers say _Amy_, one of the best-reviewed films of the year (it sports a 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes), has every chance of ultimately earning $7 million or more in the U.S. So far this decade, the only docs to earn more than $7 million were _Babies_ in 2010 ($7.3 million) and a pair of titles from conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza. In 2012, D’Souza’s _2016: Obama’s America_ grossed $33.5 million, followed by $14.4 million for _America: Imagine the World Without Her_ in 2014. A24 has already begun an awards campaign for _Amy_, which first opened in six theaters over the July 3-5 weekend. The doc scored a strong location average of $37,098\. The following weekend, _Amy_ upped its theater count to 341, taking in $1.8 million to zoom up the chart to No. 12. Last weekend, _Amy_ moved into a total of 435 theaters, grossing $1.1 million. A24 distribution chief Heath Shapiro says the doc will continue to expand in the coming weeks. “If you look at quality in the marketplace, we are really distinctive. It’s gotten such superlative reviews, and the word of mouth has been tremendous,” he says. “We are playing in every major market, a rare achievement for a documentary. And it’s playing well in crossover commercial houses, as well as in arthouses.” Those more commercial theaters include Pacific Theaters The Grove in Los Angeles and AMC Empire 25 in New York City’s Times Square. _Amy_ is also pulling in some of its biggest numbers from theaters in San Francisco, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Phoenix and Philadelphia. In the U.K., Amy has earned north of $3 million for Altitude. [_This article originally appeared on Hollywoodreporter.com_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-amy-winehouse-film-810792) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3970718/amy-winehouse-documentary-disney-citizenfour/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3970718/amy-winehouse-documentary-disney-citizenfour/"},"headline":"Amy Winehouse Film Becoming One of the Biggest Docs in Years","datePublished":"2015-07-24T07:16:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:33:14.512Z","description":"After just three weekends, Asif Kapadia's Amy is quickly becoming one of the top-grossing documentaries in recent years, excluding Disney nature films and concert docs....","url":"https://time.com/3970718/amy-winehouse-documentary-disney-citizenfour/","keywords":["movies","documentaries"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f81d9d07a49c35/698854423c1639856445856f/winehouse.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0f81d9d07a49c35/698854423c1639856445856f/winehouse.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Amy WINEHOUSE","caption":"Amy WINEHOUSE","creditText":"Chris Christoforou—Redferns/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3970718/amy-winehouse-documentary-disney-citizenfour/","name":"Amy Winehouse Film Becoming One of the Biggest Docs in Years"}}]}] ```