You Can See Everything, A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary, has passed March of the Penguins to become one of the four highest-grossing documentaries of all time in North America. The film took $8.8 million in its fourth weekend, according to ScreenRant, pushing its domestic total to $79.8 million — past the $77.4 million March of the Penguins earned in its entire run.
The fourth weekend is the remarkable part. The film fell just 23 percent from the previous weekend, according to ScreenRant, even though it lost hundreds of theatres to the four new wide releases. Its fourth Friday alone, at $2.6 million, was the biggest fourth Friday ever for a documentary, and it beat Fahrenheit 9/11, which made $2 million on its own fourth Friday.
A fourth weekend that refuses to fade
Deadline had estimated a fourth weekend of around $7.8 million, while analyst Luiz Fernando put it at $8 million to $10 million. The final figure, $8.8 million on ScreenRant’s count or $8.86 million on the Monday box-office report, lands at the top of that range — and it was enough for fourth place in the busiest weekend of the autumn, ahead of Ramayana’s $6.24 million.
The documentary is now chasing the films ahead of it on the all-time list, and some trackers now think it has a shot at $100 million in the United States, with Koimoi reporting a projected domestic finish between $90 million and $100 million. On its fourth weekend, with theatres falling away and audiences still turning up, that no longer looks fanciful.
A run that grew every week
The film’s theatrical run has grown at every step. Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, it captures the Theranos founder in the 34 days before she reported to prison, and nobody knew the project existed until its surprise world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in early September.
It opened to $15.6 million from just 855 theatres, the biggest debut for a documentary since Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. It then rose 25 percent to $19.5 million in its second weekend, and claimed number one over Halloween weekend, edging out DC’s Clayface by about $443,000 — only the fourth documentary ever to top a weekend.
New territory still to come
The film is also only just starting to reach audiences overseas. It opens in Australia and New Zealand on November 12, followed by the UK on November 20, according to Deadline — and those markets have not yet contributed to a worldwide total that currently stands at around $73.7 million, almost entirely domestic. A24 has submitted the film for awards-season consideration. Whether it reaches $100 million domestically is now the question — but on its fourth weekend, the Holmes documentary has already joined box-office royalty.
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