“You Can See Everything” remained a box office juggernaut, grossing $80 million in North America after just four weekends of release. At this rate, A24’s hot film about Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes is on pace to surpass $100 million domestically, a hugely impressive milestone for a nearly three-hour documentary.
Over the weekend, “You Can See Everything” collected $8.8 million from 2,473 theaters in its fourth frame, a miniscule decline of 23%. It now ranks as the second highest-grossing non-music documentary ever made in North America, ahead of 2005’s “March of the Penguins” ($77 million) and behind the Michael Moore film “Fahrenheit 9/11” ($119 million).
“You Can See Everything” has not yet been released internationally; its deployment is staggered from the end of November. It will have to resonate with foreign audiences to break the world box office records for the genre. “Fahrenheit 9/11” is the biggest documentary in history with $103 million overseas and $222 million worldwide, followed by “March of the Penguins” with $49 million overseas and $127 million worldwide.
“‘You Can See Everything’ really broke the rules governing how a documentary performs at the box office,” says Paul Dergarabedian, market trends manager at Rentrak. “It defied box office gravity week after week and clearly captured the public imagination.”
After a surprise world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, “You Can See Everything” became a word-of-mouth sensation, bolstered by some of the best reviews of the year. After opening to $15 million in mid-October, the film continues to draw crowds, many of whom have returned to theaters to process and unpack this stranger-than-fiction film. Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, “You Can See Everything” takes place over three years and begins as Holmes, the founder of health technology company Theranos, prepares for her 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors.
The turnout for “You Can See Everything” is impressive considering there have been numerous films and TV shows about Holmes. His rise and dramatic fall were immortalized in the Hulu series “The Dropout,” starring Amanda Seyfried, as well as Alex Gibney’s “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.” All the secrecy around “You Can See Everything,” a project that no one knew about until about a month before it hit theaters, has built anticipation. The documentary’s popularity also speaks to the commercial appeal of Fielder, a master of cringe comedy. He developed a talent for blending fact and fiction through shows like HBO’s “The Rehearsal” and Comedy Central’s “Nathan For You,” and moviegoers were intrigued to awkwardly witness the dynamic between him and Holmes.
The improbable box office powerhouse even managed to outstrip several major fall releases, including Oppenheim’s “Primetime,” a frenetic drama starring Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen ($46 million to date), DC’s comic book adventure “Clayface” ($56 million to date), Brad Pitt’s survival thriller “Heart of the Beast” ($67 million dollars) and the Colleen Hoover adaptation “Verity”, directed by Anne. Hathaway and Dakota Johnson ($75 million). All of these films were supported by months-long, multi-million dollar marketing campaigns.
For A24, “You Can See Everything” is the independent studio’s third-biggest domestic release ever, surpassing 2022’s “Everywhere All at Once” ($77 million) and behind this summer’s “Backrooms” ($197 million) and 2025’s “Marty Supreme” ($96 million). With a production budget of $7 million, it will also be extremely profitable.
Gn entert
