Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Outpaces DC's 'Clayface' in Halloween Box Office Fight, Nears $60 Million

A24's documentary "You Can See Everything" continued to outdraw Warner Bros.' effects-heavy horror release "Clayface" through Halloween weekend, a reversal that few in the industry forecast when the DC-branded film opened five weeks into the documentary's run. Daily grosses tracked by The Numbers show the documentary earning more on the night of October 30 than the studio's tentpole, a gap that trade outlet TheWrap flagged in a report published early Saturday, framing the two films as locked in a tight race on Halloween itself. By the end of that Friday, "You Can See Everything" had grossed close to $57 million domestically, a sum "Clayface," despite a wider initial release, had not matched even with its international receipts added in.

Directed by comedian Nathan Fielder and documentarian Lance Oppenheim, the film follows Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes during what A24 describes on its official film page as the "34 days before she goes to prison," during which Holmes "invited a skeptical film crew to follow her." It is Fielder's first nonfiction feature, co-directed with Oppenheim, whose previous credits include the narrative film "Primetime."

The Numbers

"You Can See Everything" opened October 16 on 855 screens in a deliberately narrow release and took in roughly $15 million in its first three days — a result the Associated Press described as the strongest opening for a nonmusic documentary in two decades, since Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004. A24 then widened the release to 2,655 theaters for its second weekend, adding $19.5 million, a 25 percent jump that is unusual for any film in its second week, let alone a documentary. By October 30, with the count expanded again to 3,243 locations for the holiday frame, the film's domestic total stood at $56.85 million, against a budget reported at under $10 million including marketing.

"Clayface," directed by James Watkins for Warner Bros. and DC Studios, opened October 23 on 3,458 screens and took $24 million in its first weekend — a global debut of roughly $43 million, on a reported production budget of $40 million to $44 million. By October 30 its domestic total was $36.9 million, with $31.4 million more from overseas markets, for a worldwide figure near $68.3 million. Measured purely on North American ticket sales, a three-hour documentary about a convicted fraudster has now outgrossed a comic-book horror film with roughly double the budget.

A 34-Day Access Deal, Years in the Making

Holmes was convicted in January 2022 on four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy following a trial in the Northern District of California, a case still documented in the court's own trial-exhibit archive filed under docket 18-CR-258. She was sentenced that November to more than 11 years in prison and reported to a federal facility in Texas in May 2023. Fielder and Oppenheim's film was shot in the weeks before that surrender, with Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, granting the filmmakers access to their home. The project was kept secret until its premiere as the surprise closing-night screening at the Telluride Film Festival on September 6.

The film received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association for language and nudity, and runs two hours and 55 minutes. A24 has not announced a streaming date; it opens in the United Kingdom on November 20 and in Brazil and Italy later that month.

Reaction, and an Unsettled Filmmaker

Fielder, best known for the Comedy Central series "Nathan For You" and HBO's "The Rehearsal," has described the project as more personally unsettling than his earlier comedic work. In a cover interview with W Magazine, he said his assumptions shifted during filming.

"When I started the project, Elizabeth seemed black and white to me. In my mind, she was guilty."

He told the magazine he remained uncertain about some of what he filmed, adding that he felt "conflicted at times, which was new for me." Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz, who appears in press coverage of the film, has said he was unsettled by the version of Holmes the documentary presents.

The box office results carry different stakes for each side of the weekend's matchup. For A24, long associated with prestige and horror titles rather than box office scale, the film is already one of its highest-grossing theatrical releases and a likely awards-season centerpiece. For Warner Bros. and DC Studios, "Clayface" — part of the studio's post-"Superman" slate under new DC leadership — recorded one of the weaker openings for a DC title in recent years, though an A- CinemaScore suggests audiences who saw it responded well. Exhibitors, for their part, have benefited from an unusual late-October stretch in which two very different films are both drawing crowds into November, a rarer occurrence than the industry's reliance on franchise tentpoles would suggest.

What's Next

"You Can See Everything" is widely expected to be submitted for the Documentary Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards. Under the Academy's own rules for the category, laid out in its published Documentary Feature Film rules for this awards cycle, the theatrical eligibility window runs from January 1 through December 31, 2026, with a submission deadline of October 15 for films qualifying in the second half of the year — a date the film's own October 16 wide release brushed up against, though the rules allow distributors to request extensions for productions without a locked final cut. The shortlist is expected in mid-December, with nominations in January.

"Clayface" will continue its rollout through November as counter-programming thins out, while A24 is expected to keep expanding "You Can See Everything" into additional markets ahead of its international openings later this month. Both studios will report final October figures in the coming days, and the comparison between a nine-figure franchise bet and a sub-$10-million documentary is likely to remain a talking point in year-end assessments of where theatrical audiences are actually showing up.