Clayface tops North American box office as Elizabeth Holmes documentary takes $19.5 million

Weekend box office

Clayface, a horror film from DC Studios and Warner Bros. about the Batman villain, opened at No. 1 in North America with about $24 million from 3,458 theaters, according to studio estimates reported on Sunday, 25 October. The R-rated film was budgeted at $44 million and added $19 million overseas. Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, a rising movie star who undergoes experimental facial surgery after a mob boss disfigures him. The opening was at the low end of prerelease analyst expectations, but it gave DC a measure of stability after Supergirl, which grossed $126 million worldwide in July against a $170 million production budget. Other reports put that film's production and marketing costs at no less than $270 million. Clayface edged out You Can See Everything, the A24 documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, which took in $19.5 million in its second weekend. The film expanded from 855 locations to 2,655, and Vulture reports that its ticket sales rose 28 percent in its second week. Its cumulative North American gross reached $45.1 million over two weeks, which AP says already ranks it among the highest-grossing documentaries ever.

AP quoted Paul Dergarabedian on what the opening says about the studio's approach.

Clayface is a great example of studios taking chances, with DC venturing into R-rated horror and body horror, something that's certainly not your typical comic book movie.

Why the documentary is drawing crowds

The film runs almost three hours and was directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Its hype began about 40 days before its US release, when it was screened as a secret surprise at the Telluride festival, where audiences had to lock their phones in pouches while guards with night-vision equipment watched the hall. NZZ reports that more than 2,000 screenings sold out in North America on the first weekend alone. AP says the film has drawn waves of Gen Z moviegoers, and its awards prospects are growing. David A. Gross, who publishes the FranchiseRe box office newsletter, described the film's appeal and the money behind it.

A24 invested a reported $7 million in an interesting but complicated idea without a beginning, middle or end, that's turned into a zeitgeist film about money, dreams, truth and reality.

The Independent reports that the documentary is the highest-grossing nonmusical documentary since Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004, and that reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.

Awards talk and the Holmes case

Some commentators predict the film could become the first documentary nominated for best picture at the Oscars, which AP says would be a first for the category. Vulture says it could surpass Fahrenheit 9/11's $119 million to become the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Holmes founded Theranos in 2003, at age 19, after leaving her chemistry studies at Stanford, according to Rzeczpospolita. She is serving an 11-year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, after being convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy over lies about her blood-testing company's technology. The Independent reports that the film begins 34 days before Holmes reports to that prison.

Other releases and what comes next

Wildwood, a stop-motion animation from Laika about a teenage girl searching an enchanted forest for her kidnapped brother, debuted in third place with $11.2 million, according to Vulture (the Independent gives $11 million). The film holds a 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and an A CinemaScore, and it cost about $100 million to make, per the Independent. Street Fighter fell from first to fourth place in its second week with $8.6 million. Wicker, the romantic fantasy starring Olivia Colman, took fifth with $5.75 million, and Vulture notes that a single night of 4DX screenings is scheduled for it. The documentary opens in Switzerland and Germany on 3 December, according to NZZ.