10 Movies You’ll Be Shocked To Hear Were Huge Box Office Hits

7. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - $222.4m

Michael Moore's Palme d'Or-winning documentary was released at the perfect time to ride the well-publicized wave of controversy to box office success, landing in theaters just months before the 2004 Presidential election. Made for only $6m, Fahrenheit 9/11 would go on to become the highest-grossing documentary in history, earning almost a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office. Opening at the top of the domestic box office with $23.9m, the movie would remain in the top ten for seven weeks and earn almost $120m in the United States. Given the topicality of the subject matter and Moore's button-pushing reputation, international audiences were just as curious to see the movie and Fahrenheit 9/11 would earn over $100m from overseas markets. Documentaries don't tend to score particularly high box office grosses or show much staying power, which makes it all the more impressive that Moore's modestly-budgeted feature became the genre's biggest-ever hit by quite some distance.