Look out Clayface, because Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes are out for blood. And not the Theranos kind. Like box office blood.
After overperforming this past weekend with $15.6 million and a No. 2 opening, A24’s Gen Z-skewing feature documentary You Can See Everything won Monday at the domestic box office with $2.57M, clocking Paramount/Legendary/Capcom’s Street Fighter into second with $1.9M.
The documentary, made for less than $10M, now counts a running North American tally of $18.1M. Street Fighter stands at $32.6M through four days.
Next to other recent Gen Z fare, You Can See Everything‘s Monday ain’t that far from Obsession‘s first Monday of $2.9M. It’s also higher than the first Monday of Markiplier’s Iron Lung which was $2.05M, though it is behind A24 sensation Backrooms‘ first Monday ($7.6M; no big deal there).
You Can See Everything, directed by Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, is going wide this weekend with at least 2,600 theaters and counting, and early speculation is it has a shot at taking down Warner Bros/DC’s lower-budget genre movie debut Clayface (a character from the Batman Gotham universe in which the Dark Knight isn’t ever referenced).
‘Clayface’ says “Please don’t hurt me, Elizabeth Holmes”
Warner Bros. Pictures
Calm down, newly merged Paramount-Warner Bros distribution and marketing execs: right now the domestic forecast has Clayface at north of $20M this weekend. We’ve heard presales have picked up for the film in the past two days, with the battle between Clayface and Holmes and Fielder boiling down to a market-by-market fight almost like a Red vs. Blue election. Note that advance ticket sales can jump significantly in the next three days as A24 adds showtimes for You Can See Everything. Major circuits’ presales for Clayface are wavering; some indicate an $18M opening, while others see it in the mid-$20Ms. What’s working here in the James Watkins-directed movie? That trailer scene where Clayface is cutting his face with scissors.
EntTelligence has the average general ticket price for Clayface at $14.65 versus $12.88 for You Can See Everything. Also Clayface‘s in-theater campaign is bigger with 34.1M impressions to 2.3M.
As a three-hour documentary, You Can See Everything is in rare air at the box office. But that runtime didn’t stop it from over-indexing from a high-single-digits forecast last weekend to the $15M+ it notched. Couples are going to You Can See Everything at 44%. Obsession was also a Gen Z couples pic, and that jumped 39% in its second weekend to $23.9M from a $17.1M opening. Unheard of.
Many have comped You Can See Everything, given its fewer-than-1,000-screen engagement launch, to 2006’s Borat. That Sacha Baron Cohen movie opened to $26.4M at 837 locations and surged 7% in its second weekend in a 2,566 wide break that earned $28.2M.
When the final box office analysis is run, it wouldn’t be a shocker if You Can See Everything‘s weekend results are near to even with Clayface‘s. And that’s not with the use of a Theranos machine.