You Can See Everything, A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary, has entered the top five highest-grossing documentaries of all time in North America — one of the most unlikely box-office runs of the year. The film took $2.6 million on its fourth Friday, the biggest fourth Friday ever for a documentary, pushing its domestic total to $73.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo data cited in today’s coverage.
That total passes Michael Jackson’s This Is It, which earned $72.1 million in North America, and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, which finished its run with $73 million. The documentary is now chasing March of the Penguins, which ended its run with around $77.4 million — and Deadline expects the Holmes film to pass it this weekend, with its running total projected to reach $78.7 million by the end of Sunday.
A fourth weekend that refuses to fade
The fourth Friday is the remarkable part. The film fell just 28.2 percent from the previous Friday even though it lost 770 theatres, according to analyst Luiz Fernando, cited in trade coverage. It also beat Fahrenheit 9/11, which made $2 million on its own fourth Friday.
Deadline now estimates a fourth weekend of around $7.8 million, down 32 percent, while Luiz Fernando and Koimoi put the weekend at $8 million to $10 million — a disagreement that matters less than the direction: a nearly three-hour documentary, in its fourth weekend, is competing with Drummer Boy and Ramayana for third place at the box office. Some trackers now think the film has a shot at $100 million in the United States, with Koimoi reporting a projected domestic finish between $90 million and $100 million.
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 Friday, with theatres falling away and audiences still turning up, the Holmes documentary has already joined box-office royalty.
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