LOS ANGELES – A24 spent three years making a secret film about Elizabeth Holmes, and over the weekend the public showed it would buy tickets in bulk.
“You Can See Everything,” from directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, opened to $15 million from 855 theaters, Variety reported. That was enough for second place behind Paramount’s “Street Fighter,” which Variety said opened to $30 million from 3,575 venues. NBC News put the “Street Fighter” figure at $31 million based on Sunday studio estimates, and the totals for both films may shift once actual sales are counted.
The documentary had been aiming for $7 million to $8 million heading into the weekend, according to Variety, so the result roughly doubled the target. Deadline said it was the second-best opening for a documentary at the domestic box office, behind the $23.9 million debut of “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004, and the best for any film in fewer than 1,000 locations since “Borat” in 2006. TheWrap put the per-theater average at $17,543 and described it as the largest documentary opening in 13 years.
Deadline also singled the film out on Sunday as the weekend’s scene stealer.
The money looks different next to the film’s cost. A24 produced it in secret over three years for roughly $7 million, Variety said, which means the opening weekend gross is about double the budget. Theaters keep a share of ticket sales, so the gross is not the studio’s take, but the comparison matters in a year when Variety noted that Amazon MGM’s “Melania” documentary carried a $40 million budget and ended its run with $16.3 million.
Demand appeared to come from audiences who wanted to see it before the plot was spoiled. A24 reported more than 2,000 sold-out screenings, according to Variety, and exit polls showed 90 percent of ticket buyers would definitely recommend the film. Deadline reported lines around the block at theaters from Nashville to Toronto, and said the Kabuki theater in San Francisco had the film’s top gross.
The path there was unusual. The film had a surprise world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and Deadline said A24 released the teaser as the first screening began on Sept. 6 and followed with a trailer on Sept. 23. Eastern Herald had examined the film’s awards-season prospects in September, before anyone knew whether theaters would show up.
Holmes was sentenced in 2022 to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding Theranos investors, the Justice Department said. A24 describes the film as beginning thirty-four days before she is sent to prison, when she invites a skeptical filmmaker to follow her, according to the studio. Eastern Herald separately reported on the access Holmes gave the filmmakers after refusing to meet the reporter who exposed the company.
Critics have been as enthusiastic as ticket buyers. The film held a 99 percent critics score and a 98 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, TheWrap reported. After Telluride it screened at the New York Film Festival on Sept. 30, People reported, and A24 has set a U.K. and Ireland release for Nov. 20, The Hollywood Reporter said. The New York Times noted that the film follows Holmes both a month before she entered federal prison and two years into her sentence.
The larger test comes next. Variety said the film is expanding nationwide in the weeks ahead, and Deadline said a wider release is planned for next weekend. A strong opening in 855 theaters does not guarantee the same appetite when tickets are no longer scarce, and a three-hour running time limits how many showings theaters can schedule each day. Eastern Herald’s earlier box-office report had tracked how quickly the picture changed over the weekend.
What remains unknown is the film’s final domestic number, which will come when studios report actual Sunday sales, and how it holds when the novelty fades. The reports reviewed here also do not say what Holmes herself gains or loses from the success, and neither A24 nor the filmmakers addressed that question.
The weekend still gave theaters a rare example of a documentary behaving like an event. Whether A24 can turn that into a long run is the part nobody can count yet.
