Many this year have talked about how abysmal the doc box office has been. But perhaps it hasn't been as bad as we thought...in his iW BOT Specialty Box Office round up for the year, Eugene Hernandez points out the following:

As 2008's top doc, Lionsgate's Bill Maher anti-organized religion rant, Religulous, may have only grossed about half of 2007's champ, Michael Moore's Sicko, but its success represented a substantially greater overall doc performance this year. While in 2007 only 3 docs grossed $1 million (the others being No End In Sight and In The Shadow of the Moon, both of which just barely crossed that mark), 2008 has seen six, with a few bubbling just under.

In fact, four of the 25 highest grossing docs of all time came out of 2008 (Religulous, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Shine a Light and Young@Heart). Oscar hopeful Man on Wire, bubbling $500,000 or so under with nearly $3 million and still in release, could also end up joining that group.

Read the full report here.