Blog: Behind Oscar’s snub of box-office smash ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ in banner year for docs

But only two of those commercial hits fared well with academy voters: “RBG,” the documentary about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and “Free Solo,” which follows how climber Alex Honnold scaled a 3,000-ft. rock wall without ropes. “RBG,” co-directed by Columbia University journalism school professors Julie Cohen and Betsy West, has sold more than $14 million in theater tickets, and “Free Solo,” from husband-and-wife directorial team Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi, has brought in more than $13 million at the box office.