Steps to goose a documentary’s sales

Movie industry pundits are focused on the coming weekend debut of “X2: X-Men United,” wondering just how big its opening will be. On a much smaller scale, another film’s entrance into the L.A. market is generating speculation about how high it will fly.

“Winged Migration,” a $21-million, Oscar-nominated documentary about birds in flight, has been a hit in a host of European countries, including France, where it drew 2 million people during its first week. The movie, directed and co-written by Jacques Perrin, also took in more than $33,000 during the first weekend of its single-theater New York City engagement -- a strong showing for nonfiction.

Life would have been simpler had “Winged Migrations” beaten Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” in the best documentary race, concedes Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Tom Bernard. Instead of a statuette, the company is relying largely on word of mouth.

Target audiences include bird lovers, the documentary crowd, families and the “stoner” audience, which views the picture as a “visually powerful mind-blower,” Bernard says. (The magazine High Times has scheduled a story on the film, whose cameras were positioned in open-air airplanes to create the sensation of flying from a bird’s-eye view.)

The studio held screenings and fund-raisers for wildlife and environmental groups; launched a direct-mail campaign through the Audubon Society; participated in film festivals, and is running a contest offering a bird-watching trip to Japan and Alaskan cruise on wingedmigration.com.

On Friday, the movie will expand to 15 screens nationwide, including three in L.A., increasing slowly to a maximum of about 1,000 by mid-July.

“A film about migrating birds isn’t an obvious choice,” said Bernard. “So we have to position it as a riveting cinematic experience. Our ads now suggest an art-house picture -- avoiding the Discovery Channel image. But when we’ve worked our way into a city’s culture, maybe three weeks in, we’ll set it up as a nature film. ‘Migration’ won’t deliver like ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’ which played in 2,000 theaters. But it could be as big as ‘Columbine.’ ”

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-- Elaine Dutka