A second weekend that went up, not down
A24’s You Can See Everything rose 23% in its second weekend, collecting $19.5 million from 2,655 screens. That is up from a $15.8 million opening and extends a run that began with the biggest documentary debut since Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004.
Directed by Lance Oppenheim with Nathan Fielder as co-director and star, the three-hour film follows incarcerated Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans. A surprise Telluride premiere two months ago turned festival reviews into a word-of-mouth run that has pulled in both true-crime followers of Holmes and Fielder’s cult audience from Nathan For You and The Rehearsal.
Why the usual box office math breaks here
Most forecasts hinge on how sharply a film drops in its second weekend. A second-weekend increase in the 21st century is rare enough that analysts reach back to 2002’s The Ring, which added 23% to $18.4 million after expanding to 2,634 locations.
But The Ring was a horror title with a built-in discovery story. A three-hour documentary climbing is a different event. Rentrak analyst Paul Dergarabedian told TheWrap the film “defies traditional analysis,” and A24’s choice to open in only 855 locations gave word of mouth room to build before the expansion.
What the next two weeks will decide
One rival distributor told TheWrap an $80 million domestic run is a lock. That would clear A24 hits such as Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Drama and Civil War.
Daniel Loria, SVP and editorial director at The Boxoffice Company, sees weekend three as the ceiling test. If You Can See Everything holds at $15 million or more, it has a strong chance to pass Marty Supreme’s $96 million domestic run and become A24’s second-biggest film ever, behind only Backrooms at $197.5 million.
- A $100 million domestic total would make it the 11th documentary to cross that mark in box office history.
- It would join Fahrenheit 9/11 as just the second non-music, non-nature documentary in that group.
- Sony Pictures will handle international releasing, putting a $100 million global figure within reach.
The release playbook worth watching
For distribution teams, the pattern is the lesson. A24 held back a wide bow, opened in 855 locations, and expanded only after festival buzz and opening-weekend conversation gave the film cultural momentum. That inverts the usual wide-open-and-decline model for event titles.
The film also shows the value of a dual built-in audience. True-crime loyalists came for Holmes; Fielder’s fanbase came for the meta-documentary angle. Their debate became a word-of-mouth engine that reached viewers outside both camps.
What it means for the marketplace
The box office runs on surprise hits that offset high-profile misses. In 2024, Cineverse’s Terrifier 3 filled that role with $54 million domestic against the disappointing Joker: Folie à Deux. Heading into the Halloween frame, where Warner Bros./DC’s Clayface is the main competitor, You Can See Everything may pass Amazon MGM’s Verity to become October’s highest grossing film.
Source: TheWrap
