Original Coverage & Source Attribution: collider.com
DC is getting pretty nasty just in time for Halloween. Clayface is now in theaters, bringing Batman’s shapeshifting villain into the DC Universe with Tom Rhys Harries underneath all that ruined skin. Directed by James Watkins, the body-horror movie is a big departure from the studio’s last theatrical release, Supergirl, and a perfectly grimy and gruesome introduction to its version of Gotham.
It is also a different kind of bet for James Gunn and Peter Safran. A Batman villain can certainly get comic-book fans into seats, but the horror audience could be just as important for a movie releasing just eight days before Halloween. Whether that combination can carry Clayface through its opening weekend is the question, especially after Supergirl struggled at the box office this summer.
Clayface brought in an estimated $3.5 million or more during Thursday previews, putting its initial estimate at roughly $4.3 million behind Supergirl’s $7.8 million preview total, although it’s important to remember that Supergirl’s total also included Wednesday fan screenings in addition to Thursday previews. Clayface’s figure is also an early estimate, so that gap could change when the updated numbers arrive. The horror movie does have the stronger critical reception, entering the weekend with a 75% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared with Supergirl‘s 52%.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes
Which Superhero Team Should You Join?
Avengers · X-Men · Teen Titans · The Boys
Every team is a personality test with a uniform. One saves the world and argues about it the whole way home. One has been fighting for the right to exist since the day it formed. One is still working out who it is while the fighting happens. And one has no powers at all, plus no intention of playing fair. Eight questions decide where you actually belong.
Avengers(Marvel Studios)
X-Men(Marvel)
Teen Titans(DC)
The Boys(Prime Video)
FIND YOUR TEAM →
01
What kind of power would you actually want?
The power matters less than what you would be willing to do with it.
ASomething enormous and obvious. I would not hide it.
BSomething I was born with, whether I wanted it or not.
CSomething still growing that I cannot quite control.
DNone at all. I would rather nobody sees me coming.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Why join a team at all?
Nobody puts on the suit for the reason they say out loud.
ABecause some threats are too big for anyone alone.
BBecause people like me are safer together than apart.
CBecause I did not want to do any of this alone.
DBecause somebody has to hold these people accountable.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
How do you feel about the people in charge?
Every team has a chain of command. Very few of them survive contact.
AI will follow a good leader and argue with a bad one.
BThey have never protected people like me. I expect nothing.
CI am still learning who to trust, and getting it wrong.
DThey are the problem. That is the entire point.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What is your role inside a group?
Every roster needs the same handful of people to function.
AThe big personality. I take up room and I earn it.
BThe one who protects whoever arrived most recently.
CThe heart. I keep everybody talking to each other.
DThe one who says the uncomfortable thing out loud.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you win a fight you should lose?
This is the scene the entire film gets built around.
AOverwhelming force, and a very good landing.
BWorking together in a way nobody saw coming.
CRefusing to give up long after I should have.
DPreparation, leverage, and one extremely dirty trick.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What is this work costing you?
Nobody does this for free. The bill just arrives differently for everyone.
AMy private life. Everybody knows my face now.
BMy safety. The world is frightened of me.
CMy childhood. I grew up faster than I should have.
DMy peace. I cannot stop now that I know.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How should the world see your team?
Half of this job is public relations, and everybody knows it.
AAs icons. The team everyone is relieved to see arrive.
BAs people. Just people, which is all we ever asked.
CAs proof the next generation is going to be fine.
DThey should not see us at all until it is done.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
The offer arrives. What makes you say yes?
Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your team.
AThe scale. If the world is ending, I want to be there.
BThe promise that I would not have to hide anymore.
CThe people. I would be joining friends, not an employer.
DThe chance to take down somebody who deserves it.
REVEAL MY TEAM →
Recruitment Is Complete
Your Team Is…
Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.
Marvel Studios · The Avengers · Since 2012
The Avengers
You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.
- The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process. - You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
real entry requirement here. - The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building. - When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.
Marvel · X-Men · Since 1963
The X-Men
You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.
- This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
wanted gone by the same people they keep saving. - You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable. - The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
to go and are never once asked to explain themselves. - You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.
DC · Teen Titans · Since 1964
The Teen Titans
You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.
- Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
villain of the week, is what the team is actually about. - You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
which is far less lonely than being the only one. - The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
honest model of growing up than any other team here manages. - The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.
Prime Video · The Boys · Since 2019
The Boys
You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.
- The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences. - You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
not to mention. - This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean. - You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
‘Clayface’ Has a Much Smaller Budget Than ‘Supergirl’
Image via DC
Coming in below Supergirl does not put Clayface in the same financial position. The reported production budget for Clayface was $44 million before marketing, compared with Supergirl’s reported $170 million. That is a $126 million difference before either movie’s advertising costs are taken into account, giving Clayface a substantially lower production cost to recover.
Directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, Clayface makes a hell of a case for letting Batman’s weirdest villains have their own horror movies. Harries plays Matt Hagen, an actor whose attempt to repair his disfigured face leaves him trapped in an increasingly monstrous body. Harries gives the grotesque transformation someone worth caring about underneath it, making Matt’s desperation hurt even when the movie is at its nastiest. His chemistry with Naomi Ackie, who plays Dr. Caitlyn Corr, makes their increasingly dangerous relationship just as compelling as the body horror.
Early domestic forecasts place Clayface’s opening weekend between $20 million and $25 million. Its Thursday turnout is the first piece of that picture, with the rest of the weekend still to determine whether DC fans showed up early or horror audiences will keep the theaters busy. The timing gives it a chance to become a Halloween outing, provided viewers are willing to spend part of their weekend watching Matt Hagen fall apart.
Clayface is now playing in theaters.
- Release Date
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October 23, 2026
- Runtime
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108 Minutes
- Director
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James Watkins
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Tom Rhys Harries
Matt Hagen / Clayface
-
Naomi Ackie
Dr. Caitlin Bates
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