Original Coverage & Source Attribution: cosmicbook.news
Clayface hits theaters Friday, October 23, and a week ago the No. 1 spot looked like a lock.
Not anymore.
The Wrap reports that A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything could take the top spot away. The doc is putting up numbers no documentary has hit in two decades, and it expands nationwide the same day Clayface opens.
The same report projects Clayface for a $25 million to $30 million opening. Any other weekend, that wins easily.
‘Clayface’ Rotten Tomatoes Score Beats ‘Supergirl’ — But Will That Matter?
The review embargo for Clayface lifted Wednesday morning, and the Rotten Tomatoes score is in. Clayface debuts Fresh at 77%, with 44…
This weekend, it might not.
The Biggest Documentary Opening In 22 Years
You Can See Everything is Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
It opened last weekend to $15.8 million from just 855 theaters, the biggest opening for a documentary in 22 years.
It has not slowed down since. The film added $2.6 million on Tuesday alone and now sits at $20.8 million.
It also beat Street Fighter for Monday’s No. 1 while playing in less than a quarter of the theaters.
On Friday, it jumps to around 2,600 theaters nationwide. The Wrap expects a second weekend of at least $18 million and says word of mouth could push it well past that.
It would be the first documentary since 2018 to pass $30 million.
The comparison The Wrap reaches for is Borat. Sacha Baron Cohen’s mockumentary opened to $26.8 million from a similar theater count back in 2006, made even more money when it went wide, and finished with $128.5 million.
You Can See Everything just posted the biggest opening from under 1,000 theaters since that movie.
It runs three hours. Audiences keep showing up anyway.
Variety goes even higher on the weekend, projecting the doc at $20 million to $25 million.
That would mean a second weekend bigger than its opening, which almost never happens.
Rotten Tomatoes Pulls Rotten Clayface Review
UPDATE: The embargo has lifted, Wilding’s review is back up, and Clayface debuts Fresh at 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes has…
The same report has Clayface between $25 million and $35 million, with rival studios seeing it softer at $22 million to $28 million.
Those projections put the two movies right on top of each other.
The Horror Competition Has Cleared Out
The good news for Clayface is that the horror field emptied out right on time.
Other Mommy opened at No. 1 earlier this month, then audiences hit it with a D+ CinemaScore and it fell off fast.
Resident Evil carried the season for a month and passed $320 million worldwide, but its run is winding down.
That leaves Clayface as the Halloween pick, and the reviews back it up. The movie sits Fresh at 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, written by Mike Flanagan and directed by Speak No Evil‘s James Watkins.
The Wrap flags the one thing that could keep fans home: the idea that a Batman villain movie without Batman is DC’s Morbius.
That question has followed the movie for weeks. Skydance relabeled Clayface an “anti-hero” on its own brand page this month, the same playbook Sony ran, and the first Rotten Tomatoes review called the movie “DC’s Morbius moment.”
Venom and Joker proved a villain can carry a movie without the hero. Morbius and Kraven proved what happens when audiences do not buy in.
The First DC and Warner Bros. Movie Of The Skydance Era
Clayface is the first Warner Bros. movie released under Skydance ownership.
The Wrap puts the budget at $40 million, sticking with the original figure even after THR suddenly lowered it a week before release.
At that price, The Wrap says the movie only needs to perform like a solid mid-budget horror title to hand the studio a win after Supergirl and Digger.
Variety reports the budget at $44 million. That makes three different budget figures from three outlets in a week.
Variety also has the movie aiming for a $45 million to $55 million global opening across 76 overseas markets. Its read is Clayface looks solid at that budget whether it takes No. 1 or not.
Inside Skydance, the bar sits higher. Paramount insiders told CBN the studio is going over every dollar and that breaking even counts as failing. “Clayface better deliver.”
CBN also reported presales pointing closer to a $20 million start. If that is where Clayface lands, the documentary does not need a big jump to win the weekend.
The numbers start landing Friday night. By Sunday, Skydance finds out whether its first DC movie opened at No. 1 or lost the top spot to a documentary.
Will Harrigan writes about comics, movies, and pop culture for Cosmic Book News. He is a comic book and film enthusiast, with a particular interest in cosmic comics.
