Look out, Clayface, because Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes are out for blood. And not the Theranos kind. Like box office blood.
After overperforming to $15.6M No. 2 opening, The A24 Gen-Z skewing feature documentary, You Can See Everything, won Monday with $2.57M, clocking Paramount/Legendary/Capcom’s Street Fighter to second with $1.9M. The less than $10M documentary counts a running North American tally of $18.1M while 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 Obsession‘s first Monday of $2.9M. It’s also higher than Markiplier’s Iron Lung first Monday of $2.05M, but is behind A24 sensation’s Backrooms‘ first Monday ($7.6M; no big deal there).
The Lance Oppenheim-Nathan Fielder directed documentary is going wide this weekend with at least 2,600 theaters and counting, and early speculation is that 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).
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 last 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 town election. Note 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, Mike Flanagan first scripted 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. Also Clayface‘s in-theater campaign is bigger You Can See Everything‘s with 34.1M impressions to 2.3M.
As a 3-hour documentary, You Can See Everything is in rare air at the box office. But that runtime, didn’t hurt it from overindexing 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 less-than-1,000 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 which earned $28.2M.
When the final box office analysis is run though, 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.