[Peter Knegt] It was once again an art-centric documentary box office this weekend with all of the top five doc per-theatre averages belonging to those covering "artists." While no debut releases reported to Rentrak (from whom indieWIRE attains its information), last week's trio of debuts traded places in the ranks. Last weekend, Aaron Rose's self-distributed "Beautiful Losers" scored the top doc numbers, but this weekend it fell behind, remaining on one New York screen and seeing its gross drop nearly 75% to $2,539. The film, which takes a look at a group of do-it-yourself artists who rose to art world fame in the 1990s, now has a total of $18,748. It expands to Los Angeles on August 29th.

Other sophomores Steven Sebring's "Patti Smith: Dream of Life" and Camille Guichard's "Louise Bourgeois" saw less "Losers"-esque results. "Smith" led them all, grossing $6,703 on one screen for Palm Pictures. Its total now stands at nearly double that of "Losers," with $30,918. But it was underdog "Louise" that was the most impressive, as its gross actually rose from $3,846 to $5,052, despite remaining in the sole theatre. The Zeitgeist release actually opened in New York in June, prior to the distributor's acquisition of it, and grossed $46,514. After two weeks in re-release, its total now stands at $61,665.

Another Zeitgeist release, Tina Mascara and Guido Santi's "Chris & Don. A Love Story," about lovers Christopher Isherwood (whose book 'The Berlin Stories' inspired the musical and film "Cabaret") and Don Bachardy, a portrait artist, climbed back into the top five in its tenth week. Grossing $4,246 on 4 screens, "Chris" averaged $1,062 and took its total to $190,836. That makes it the highest grossing gay-themed film of 2008, narrative or documentary.

The other film in the top five deals with a less-typically known form of art. James Marsh's "Man on Wire" details high-wire artist Philippe Petit's illegal trip between the top of the World Trade Center towers in 1974. In its fourth weekend, the Magnolia Pictures added another 10 runs, bringing its total to 69. The film grossed $214,348 for a decent $3,106 average and an impressive new total of $800,247. It adds 20 more screens this Friday and has continued slow-and-steady expansion plans well into October.