“You Can See Everything” is a sensation. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s acclaimed A24 documentary about Elizabeth Holmes grossed a whopping $15 million at the box office this weekend from just 855 locations. That’s the largest opening for a doc since Morgan Spurlock’s 2013 “One Direction” concert film, and if you take music documentaries out of the equation, it’s the biggest opening since Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” back in 2004.
How did this happen? A savvy and mysterious marketing campaign leveraged the secrecy around the film to maximize interest, leaning into a “you must see this before you get spoiled on its twists and turns” feeling that similarly fueled blockbusters like “Avengers: Endgame” to huge opening weekends.
But more than that, A24 leaned into the cult of personality around Nathan Fielder, who could be described as “internet famous” for his comedy documentary shows like “Nathan for You” and “The Rehearsal,” clips of which continue to be popular on social media.
Fielder granted zero pre-release interviews about the film.
A24 kept the entire thing secret until its surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival in September, giving them just five weeks to market the film before its release. The mysterious teaser became so viral that it became a meme in and of itself — even Seth Meyers and Kate McKinnon recreated the “why would I deceive you?” moment on “Late Night” last week.
Also working in the film’s favor is the fact that it’s excellent. “You Can See Everything” is the highest-rated film on Letterboxd right now with a 4.7 from its film-fanatic user base, and it has incredible audience scores on PostTrak with 92% of audiences surveyed giving the film the highest rating of “definite recommend.”
The trend of moviegoing this year has been audiences — especially Gen Z — turning out for events that feel fresh and new, whether that’s creator-driven horror like “Obsession” and “Backrooms” or Christopher Nolan’s really-for-real epicness in “The Odyssey.” “You Can See Everything,” a film that demands debate in the movie theater parking lot afterwards, fits right into that trend.
Now the question is not only how high the movie will fly at the box office as A24 expands its theater count in the coming weeks, but if it can be the first documentary to crack the Best Picture Oscar race, as an increasing number of prognosticators (including TheWrap’s own Steve Pond) are predicting.
On to the rest as we tackle the full weekend box office, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer shakeup, how film output will work at WB and Paramount under Skydance, the resurrection of “The Devils” and more in this week’s newsletter.
Box Office: ‘Street Fighter’ Tops With $51 Million Global Opening as ‘Whalefall’ Gets Beached With $17.5 Million
Paramount/Legendary’s “Street Fighter” brought a fair amount of gamers but seemingly no one else to theaters this weekend, leading the box office with a $31 million domestic/$51 million global opening.
That’s a middling start for this $82 million co-production between Legendary and “Street Fighter” publisher Capcom, which has arrived at Paramount as part of a new distribution deal with Legendary. The big question mark hanging over the video game film is whether it will be able to draw interest outside of its core audience, or if it will be frontloaded like fellow fighting game adaptation “Mortal Kombat II” earlier this year.
There are signs that the weeks ahead might be the latter, as the film has a B- on CinemaScore — the same as the 1994 “Street Fighter” film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme — and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 40% critics and 80% audience. For comparison, “MK II” had a B and 86% audience RT score and finished with just $130 million worldwide.
That reaction might not be enough for “Street Fighter” as it prepares to compete next weekend against Warner Bros./DC’s “Clayface,” which is hoping to bring in both comic book fans and general horror fans. Social media buzz for the film from advance screenings has been strong, raising hopes for DC after the big-budget misfire of “Supergirl.”
Meanwhile, 20th Century Studios’ survival thriller “Whalefall,” which features “Resident Evil” breakout star Austin Abrams as a scuba diver who gets swallowed by a whale, faltered. Despite generally positive reception, the film is opening to just $17.5 million worldwide with $8 million domestic against a reported net budget of $60 million.
“Whalefall” has received a B on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 71% critics and 81% audience, so word-of-mouth could help the film cut its losses in the weeks ahead. But this film is likely to join Warner Bros.’ “Digger” and Sony’s “The Social Reckoning” on the list of misfires that have plagued the box office this month, though 20th Century parent company Disney will be able to absorb any losses with the windfall Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” will bring this December.
The No. 2 movie on the charts this weekend is A24’s “You Can See Everything,” which stands as the highest opening for a documentary in at least 13 years with $15 million from just 855 screens.
Finally, Warner Bros.’ “Digger” is well on its way out of theaters, having suffered one of the biggest screen losses of any wide release in the 21st century as it shed 2,535 locations and has grossed $920,000 from 786 locations in its third weekend. The $160 million satire starring Tom Cruise has grossed just $17 million domestically. – Jeremy Fuster
The Spotlight
A massive shakeup at Netflix last week as Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria was fired after 10 years with the company, replaced by respected veteran exec Peter Rice, who was chairman of TV and general entertainment at Disney until he was shockingly fired by Bob Chapek (welcome to life as a Hollywood exec). The move is an acknowledgment from Netflix that something isn’t working content-wise as Wall Street continues to have growth concerns. Jeremy Fuster breaks down how Rice may shift the megastreamer’s strategy. Read the full story here.
New Releases
Skydance Film 101: How, exactly, will film work at Paramount and Warner Bros. now? Jeremy Fuster has the answers.
“You Can See Everything” at the Oscars: Steve Pond breaks down the Oscar chances for “You Can See Everything” — including one surprising category.
“Matchbox” Crashes: The lackluster release of Apple’s “Matchbox: The Movie” is bad news for Mattel and maybe worse news for Skydance, whose top film execs produced it.
Hello Sunshine Deal: Sharon Waxman and Lucas Manfredi go inside the sale of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine.
Hollywood’s Risk Takers: Which studios are still making “big swing” movies now that Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy are out at WB?
Resurrecting “The Devils”: Drew Taylor has the fascinating inside story on how one tenacious film critic is responsible for Clockwork’s release of “The Devils” uncut.
A New Austen: “Sense and Sensibility” filmmaker Georgia Oakley told Casey Loving about her “earthy” approach to the adaptation.
Concession Stand
Exclusive: Amazon, EA and Heyday are eyeing an adaptation of A.F. Steadman’s forthcoming fantasy novel “TimeLess.”
Steven Soderbergh will complete the last third of principal photography on “The Batman: Part II” while Matt Reeves tends to a personal matter. Perfect choice.
“JFK” and “Cloud Atlas” inspired director Brian Duffield’s take on “Whalefall.”
Francis Lawrence will direct an adaptation of bestseller “Red Rising” for Paramount.
Outerlight Entertainment is the new owner of Bleecker Street.
A24 is staying in the Alex Garland business: Zendaya will star in the “Civil War,” “Warfare” and “Elden Ring” filmmaker’s next film, a sci-fi movie.
“Miami Vice ’85” already looks great.
Streaming Corner
- “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” is perhaps one of the biggest swings in Netflix film history, but here’s an example of why we all trust in Greta Gerwig: she got “Stairway to Heaven.” The filmmaker explained how she personally convinced Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page by not only showing them the film, but discussing its heart. Cameron Crowe couldn’t get it for “Almost Famous;” Mike Myers couldn’t get it for “Wayne’s World;” even Netflix’s own “Stranger Things” tried and failed. But Greta finally finally got the Zeppelin masterpiece licensed for the very first time.
What I’m Watching
“You Can See Everything” lives up to the hype. It’s a masterpiece by Fielder and Oppenheim — a form-shattering film about the very nature of truth and deception. The brilliance is in the movie’s second half, which finds the directors seeking uniquely compelling (and, ultimately, illuminating) ways to chronicle their own struggle to understand what they witnessed when documenting Holmes and her partner Billy Evans. The fact that so many different interpretations are already flooding social media only underlines the success of what these filmmakers accomplished.
