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What a fall season it has been for A24 and Lance Oppenheim. It was just a month ago that the indie studio and filmmaker found specialty success with the surrealist “To Catch a Predator” biopic “Primetime,” which amidst strong reviews has earned a solid $45 million at the U.S. box office so far.
But after just 11 days in theaters, Oppenheim is set to outdo himself with “You Can See Everything,” which after earning the biggest opening weekend for a documentary since “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004, managed to exceed that $15 million opening with a $19.5 million second weekend. Lifted by buzz rarely seen for a doc, the three-hour Elizabeth Holmes-centric film expanded its screen count to 2,655 locations and saw a 23% bump from its $15.8 million opening.
Directed by Oppenheim in secret alongside co-director and star Nathan Fielder, “You Can See Everything” has catapulted incarcerated Theranos founder Holmes back into the headlines alongside her partner Billy Evans. The pair invited Oppenheim and Fielder into their lives in the hopes of showing a different side to Holmes that they believe wasn’t seen amidst her high-profile fraud trial.
Instead, the film’s exploration of the slippery nature
Instead, the film’s exploration of the slippery nature of truth in documentaries when handled by an untrustworthy subject — and a knowingly untrustworthy storyteller in Nathan Fielder — has put it on course to become not just one of A24’s biggest hits ever, but one of the biggest documentaries in box office history, and there’s no telling how far it can go.
“This is not only a movie that defies description but also defies traditional analysis,” said Rentrak analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “It’s a crazy long documentary, and A24 smartly opened in 855 locations, which played in this film’s favor with how the word-of-mouth has carried. But that release strategy, combined with its doc identity, makes it unique in a way that makes it so difficult to predict where it’s going to go box office-wise.”
Usually, the box office trajectory of a film is determined based on how much it drops in its second weekend, particularly compared to similar recent releases. But there are so few films that have seen a second-weekend increase in the 21st century, and none of them are anything like “You Can See Everything.”
The closest comparison in terms of raw numbers
The closest comparison in terms of raw numbers and second weekend increases is the 2002 horror classic “The Ring,” which opened to $15 million from 1,981 locations, expanded to 2,634 locations the following weekend, and saw a 23% bump to $18.4 million. But that bump is far more akin to the second weekend bump that “Obsession” earned this past summer, driven by the sort of buzz that is rare but not unheard of for a low-budget horror film that wasn’t on the radar of the genre’s fans before release, and thus had a lower opening weekend.
“You Can See Everything” wasn’t on anyone’s radar simply because the public didn’t know it even existed until its surprise Telluride premiere two months ago. But the rave festival reviews turned into a foothold in the zeitgeist thanks to both true crime fans who closely followed Holmes’ trial as well as Fielder’s cult following from his hit shows “Nathan For You” and “The Rehearsal.”
Their shocked exuberance and spirited debates about the many ambiguities in the documentary have turned it into a can’t-miss film for many moviegoers who don’t belong in either of those core audience camps, but want to be a part of the conversation. That puts it in prime position to keep posting strong numbers through Halloween weekend, where the second weekend of Warner Bros./DC’s “Clayface” will be the only major competition.
How much it makes in that weekend will
And how much it makes in that weekend will go a long way towards determining its box office ceiling. One rival distributor told TheWrap that an $80 million domestic run is a lock given the past two weekends of performance. That would exceed the unadjusted domestic grosses of top A24 hits like “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Drama” and “Civil War.”
But Daniel Loria, SVP and Editorial Director for The Boxoffice Company, said that if “You Can See Everything” posts a third weekend of at least $15 million — which would match its opening weekend — then it has a strong chance of passing the $96 million domestic run of A24’s Christmas 2025 hit “Marty Supreme” to become the studio’s second highest grossing film ever behind only “Backrooms,” which holds the studio record with a $197.5 million domestic total.
“A24 did a great job with the nationwide expansion to build up the hype, but we still don’t know how long this film will maintain its current grip on the cultural conversation. How it does over the next week in nationwide release will tell us a lot about that,” Loria said.
In doing so, You Can See Everything would
In doing so, “You Can See Everything” would become the 11th documentary in box office history to pass $100 million in grosses, joining “Fahrenheit 9/11” as just the second film among that bunch that is not a music or nature documentary.
Even if it doesn’t quite get there in the U.S. alone, “You Can See Everything” will likely still pass $100 million in global grosses in the months ahead as Sony Pictures has reached a deal with A24 to handle international releasing for its films.
But to join the 19 doc films and counting that have grossed $100 million domestic would be a remarkable achievement for a film that has significantly changed the complexion of the theatrical marketplace this month. By the time October ends on Saturday, “You Can See Everything” will pass the domestic totals of Paramount’s “Street Fighter” and Universal’s “Other Mommy,” and depending on its midweek grosses, it may pass Amazon MGM’s “Verity” to become the highest grossing film of the month.
The box office always needs a surprise hit
The box office always needs a surprise hit to make up for when a high-profile film falls flat. Look at 2024, when Cineverse’s “Terrifier 3” became the highest grossing unrated film of all time with $54 million domestic, making up for the abysmal performance of Warner Bros.’ “Joker: Folie a Deux.”
Who could have imagined even three months ago, as Hollywood marveled at the historic run of “Obsession,” that we would get an even unlikelier hit from a documentarian and a cringe comedian?
