Written By | Entertainment Desk
On a sleepy Halloween weekend, A24's "You Can See Everything" edged "Clayface" for No. 1 in its third week of release.
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LOS ANGELES
Hollywood is used to superheroes winning the weekend. It is far less used to a three-week-old documentary about a disgraced biotech founder doing it. Yet that is the story of the Halloween box office, where A24's "You Can See Everything," the film about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, took the top spot with an estimated $10.6 million, narrowly ahead of DC Studios' "Clayface," which earned $10.4 million.
The margin was thin, about $200,000, and the weekend itself was soft. According to the Associated Press, Halloween pulled audiences away from theaters, and the weekend total was not expected to exceed roughly $56 million, which would make it one of the weakest of the year. (Newser, citing studio estimates, put the ceiling at about $63 million; final figures were due Monday.) Even so, a documentary beating a studio comic-book release is a headline.
By the Numbers
"You Can See Everything" earned its $10.6 million from 2,655 locations in its third weekend of release, bringing its domestic total to $63.9 million against a reported production budget of $7 million. It was the film's first time at No. 1.
"Clayface," a Warner Bros. release about the Batman villain, fell 57 percent in its second weekend. Its domestic total stands at $44.1 million against a reported $44 million budget, which means it has only now matched its cost before marketing and international revenue are counted. Behind them, "Wildwood" took third with $7.5 million, followed by "Wicker" at $4.1 million and "Street Fighter" at $3.2 million.
Zooming out, the industry picture is healthier than a single weak weekend suggests. Domestic box office is up more than 17 percent from last year and sits near $8.5 billion year to date.
What the Film Is
The film follows Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, along with their new health-tech startup and family life. According to The Ringer's review, shooting stretched across roughly three years, both before and during Holmes's prison sentence for wire fraud and conspiracy, and the couple hoped it would help rehabilitate their public image and support their business.
The most striking element is Fielder himself. The comedian behind "Nathan for You" and "The Rehearsal" appears, in the review's words, less scripted and more visibly unsure than in his earlier work. Holmes, by the review's account, did not know who Fielder was when the crew arrived and had to be shown clips of his work. On camera he presses her about Theranos; she deflects blame, framing the fraud as a matter of miscommunication. The review also notes a major development in the second half that it asks readers not to spoil.
The Critics' Verdict
The reception has been unusually warm for a film about such a polarizing figure. Adam Nayman, writing in The Ringer, called the film absorbing, entertaining and occasionally beautiful, and he praised its structure and editing. He also found it punishing, describing it as "a torture chamber equipped with ropes for hanging and knives for twisting into the ribs," and argued that it raises hard questions about guilt, complicity, control and the ethics of documentary filmmaking. He considers it a near-masterpiece.
That mix of discomfort and fascination may explain the film's staying power. Newser noted that it "continues to generate the kind of buzz that's hard to buy," a rare thing in an era when most releases peak on opening weekend and fade.
Why This Matters
For A24, the result is a validation of a particular strategy: take a filmmaker with a devoted following, attach a subject the public already has strong feelings about, and give the film room to build through word of mouth. Reaching $63.9 million on a $7 million budget is the kind of return that studios chasing franchise revenue rarely see.
For the superhero genre, the lesson is more cautionary. "Clayface" is an R-rated DC horror entry, and its 57 percent second-weekend drop shows how fast audience enthusiasm can fade when a release depends on an opening surge. It is not a disaster, since the film has covered its reported budget domestically, but it is not a juggernaut either.
It also highlights the economics of scale. A film made for $7 million needs only a modest slice of the market to be profitable, while a release with a budget like "Clayface" needs several multiples of its domestic total to break even globally. That asymmetry is why distributors keep betting on smaller, idea-driven titles.
And for audiences, the story is a reminder that the most talked-about movie of the moment is not always the one with the biggest effects budget. True-crime and business-scandal stories have become a staple of streaming and podcasts; seeing one draw crowds to theaters on a holiday weekend suggests an appetite for shared, uneasy viewing.
What This Means for You
If you are deciding what to see, the documentary is playing widely, in more than 2,600 locations, so it should be easy to find. Be prepared for a film that is as much about the act of filming as about its subject; reviews suggest it will provoke debate on the drive home. If you would rather catch "Clayface," it remains in theaters for a second weekend, and the quiet holiday frame means shorter lines and better seats. Families have other options: "Wildwood" held third place.
The Bottom Line
One slow Halloween weekend does not remake the box office. But the image of Elizabeth Holmes, via Nathan Fielder's lens, sitting atop the chart ahead of a comic-book film says something about where audience curiosity is right now. People still want to be unsettled, and they will still go to a theater to feel it.
