What the Bleep
Originally released in February 2004 in one theater in Yelm, Washington, What the BLEEP Do We Know!? went on to become the fifth highest grossing documentary in the United States, with ticket sales of $12 Million.
Shunned by all movie distributors, the producers set about distributing and marketing the movie themselves in a “proof of concept” strategy to show theater owners there was indeed a market for spiritually oriented films that catered to audiences’ intelligence, not their lowest common denominator.
Although rejected by every major film festival (Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, Cannes, etc...), What the BLEEP did get entered in five smaller festivals, and won in every one. This, along with the grass roots, word-of-mouth campaign, kept the film in theaters for weeks and months on end. After five months of surprising box office numbers, the film attracted the attention of Samuel Goldwyn Films, and the producers entered into a distribution deal. The word-of-mouth buzz continued and the film showed real staying power (it played in one theater in Phoenix for 40+ consecutive weeks).
Following its theatrical run, FOX picked up the DVD rights and released WTBDWK!? March 15, 2005. The DVD immediately shot to the top of Amazon’s best selling list, and was named Amazon’s #1 DVD surprise of the year. To date it has sold over a million copies
