Numerical Data and Audience figures

 

Numerical & Financial Data

 

Documentaries have experienced a huge surge in popularity, becoming a staple of streaming platforms and growing over the last two decades.

Streaming & Viewership Data: Approximately 70% to 78% of Netflix subscribers watch documentary content.

Demand Growth: The demand for documentary content series grew by 142% from 2018 to 2021.

Market Share: In the first quarter of 2021, documentary series accounted for 7.4% of US audience attention, up from 6.8% in 2020. By 2024, documentary series accounted for 14.8% of demand in the US.

Weekly Reach: Research shows that 72% of viewers watch documentaries at least twice a month.

Top documentaries such as Michael Jackson’s This is it (2009) and Fahrenheit (2004) have surpassed the $100 million mark, with some over $200 million, highest grossing. Within modern box office, while many struggle, some high performing documentaries in 2018-2019 such as Free Solo and Apollo 11 grossed £2.4 million and £1.4 million respectively. With revenue generation, only 20% of documentary filmmakers report that their most recent film made a profit, while 40% stated their film did not make any profit.

The production volume for documentaries accounts for 20-25% of all films produced in the UK. The primary funding sources for documentary filmmakers are grants (30%), personal income (23%), and individual donors (16%).