ONLINE ONLY Documentaries play to keen interest By Mike Snider USA TODAY

Documentaries have arrived as a potent movie force -- it's not just record-breaker "Fahrenheit 9/11." Theaters and moviegoers are overall more welcoming of the genre, once relegated to art-house theaters. So far this year, 45 documentaries have been released in theaters, up from 29 by this time last year and 28 the year before, says box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI. Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary passed the $100 million mark, unprecedented for a documentary and considered a hit for a big-budget film, let alone one made for $6 million. But taking "Fahrenheit" from the equation, documentaries have taken in about $25 million this year, ahead of the pace for the past two years, according to EDI numbers. "More people can relate to the subject matters of the current documentaries than at any time in the past," says Joe Amodei, head of Hart Sharp Video, which is co-distributing "Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock's hit about eating only McDonald's food for a month. A big theme for this year's documentaries, including "Fahrenheit," is politics and power, and that has helped. "When you have subjects that incite passion, you have more interest and more sales," says Nielsen EDI's Adrienne Becker. More are capitalizing on interest in current events: Documentaries that came out first on DVD are popping up in theaters. "Bush's Brain," about presidential adviser Karl Rove, will run in New York and Austin next month. "Uncovered: The War on Iraq" hits major markets in late August and eventually will play in 200 theaters. Director Robert Greenwald is adding about 30 minutes for the theatrical version. "The Yes Men," a political satire about a duo who impersonate World Trade Organization officials, opens Sept. 24 in New York and Los Angeles, and United Artists/MGM is considering ratcheting up its planned release. The box office success will ripple through to home viewing as well. Randy Wells, vice president of Miramax Home Entertainment, says, "You are still more likely to find documentaries on DVD than in theaters, but with each new successful theatrical campaign, the door opens (even) wider." The year's biggest titles so far are expected to do gangbusters on DVD: "When 3 million or so copies of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' arrive in video stores -- no date has been released -- the film is poised to be the biggest documentary ever on the format, in numbers comparable to a mainstream movie. "Clearly it is treading on new territory when it comes to documentaries," says Video Store magazine's Don Rosenberg. More than 200,000 DVDs of "Super Size Me" arrive in stores Sept. 28. DVD Exclusive editor in chief Scott Hettrick expects the film to wind up among the top five docs ever released on home video.