Weekend Box Office: Clayface Claims the Top Spot, You Can See Everything Climbs the All-Time Documentary List
The DC film opened to $24 million, while the Elizabeth Holmes doc added another $19.5 million in its second weekend.
For the second week in a row, a genre film with a built-in history may have taken the top spot at the box office, but all eyes are on the numbers for the film just behind it. The leader from last week took an expected big drop and another could be in line for this week’s leader. Both will be outgrossed by the documentary that is already amongst the highest-grossing ever for its category and will continue to be talked about beyond the numbers.
King of the Crop: Clayface’s $24 Million Debut Gives DC a Small Win
The best thing that can be said for DC and their release of Clayface (apart from its #1 opening this weekend) is that the film cost just a reported $44 million. Significantly less than the $400+ million spent on Superman and Supergirl combined. That makes a $24 million start a lot easier to swallow. Certainly no blockbuster and opening nowhere near the standards of the modern comic book film (even Morbius opened to $39 million), but by treating it like a high-profile Blumhouse horror film, it actually has a chance to be a success. Never mind that this will be the second film of the Gunnverse to gross less than $100 million after a respectable, if unremarkable, Superman start, but you have to take wins where you can get them these days even if this will be Warner Bros.’ 13th release in a row to miss nine digits domestic. Can a Halloween horror bump next week help it to outgross Supergirl or will it trail off quickly and become a modest success after finishing the weekend with $43 million globally?
Fresh Surprise: You Can See Everything Is One of the Highest-Grossing Documentaries Ever
For all the grief we’ve heard about people not coming back to theaters, please take a moment to relish that we are now talking about audiences flocking to see a three-hour Nathan Fielder documentary. You Can See Everything from Fielder & Lance Oppenheim expanded its run into 2,655 theaters this week (up from 855) and it grossed another $19.5 million, a 25% increase from last week. That amounts to $45.1 million in 10 days of release. All your big documentary lists technically need to include your Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and other concert (and concert prep) films. But even with those films, Everything is among the highest-grossing documentaries ever. It’s already in the top 10. You take music acts and long-running IMAX releases out of the equation and it’s already in the top three behind only Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins. These numbers are not to be ignored. Especially in their place of modern history.
Tales of the Top 10: Ali G Quietly Debuts, Street Fighter Nose Dives
Twenty years ago, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat had one of the great starts ever ($26.4 million) for a film launched in under 2,000 theaters. Only Back to the Future Part II had done better back in 1989 ($27.8 million in 1,865 theaters). Even more impressive was that Borat was in only 837 theaters. The only film to do as well as that in under 1,000 theaters was two years earlier when Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 began with $23.9 million. (Rocky III opened to $12.4 million in 939 theaters in 1982.) All of them were bested by Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour in 2008 ($31.1 million in 683 theaters.) Cohen’s Bruno later opened to $30.6 million in 2009 and finished with $60 million compared to Borat’s $128.5 million.
Cohen’s Ali G character has been another story. Before Borat was unleashed in cinemas, his film Ali G Indahouse barely got a North American release (just a few screens in Austin in 2003.) Amazon released Borat Subsequent Moviefilm with Rudy Giuliani ready to give himself over to co-star (and eventual Oscar nominee for it) Maria Bakalova to streaming during the pandemic in October 2020. The studio has now given Ali G: Who Iz I? just a one-week release in theaters and chosen to not just withhold it from the majority of press, despite favorable scores of 90% (Borat), 68% (Bruno) and 85% (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) in the past, but also to not report any box office returns. Even The Brothers Grimsby began with $3.25 million back in 2016.
Laika has been the animation studio that critics have embraced almost as much as Pixar over the years. Coraline, ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link have all rated 88% or higher, but over the years they have had diminishing returns at the box office while their budgets have increased. Coraline (plus its subsequent re-releases) have been its best success over time, even if it wasn’t after its initial 2009 release grossing over $75 million on a $60 million budget; the same number reported for its next three efforts. ParaNorman finished with $56 million domestic, The Boxtrolls got just over $50 million, Kubo barely over $48 million and Missing Link found no audience with $16.6 million with a $100 million budget.
Coraline-to-Kubo were all released by Focus with Missing Link crashing with UA Releasing. Laika is taking, perhaps, their biggest risk to date with the release of Steven Knight’s passion project, Wildwood. Reportedly budgeted again at $100 million, the film is trusting its release to Fathom Entertainment which, when not doing one-off screenings or re-releases (they were responsible for Coraline’s successful 15th anniversary run of more than $33 million in 2024) have found their best success with faith-based releases such as The Blind and episodes of The Chosen TV series. The animated Wildwood and its PG-13 rating began with $11.6 million this weekend, which has one clamoring for the disappointing numbers of Forgotten Island. That opened to $13 million and has made just $67.9 million worldwide to date. Wildwood, meanwhile, has a perfect 100% with critics.
Like its Mortal Kombat adaptations before it, Street Fighter took a nose dive in its second weekend falling 72.1% down to $8.6 million. Earlier this year, Mortal Kombat II opened to $38.5 million and fell 65.2% to $13.4 million in its second go bringing its 10-day total to $62.2 million. Street Fighter resides with $46.9 million and there is little reason to believe the fall won’t continue along a similar stretch. A $60 million to $65 million finish is a pretty safe domestic estimate. Worldwide, the $82 million production has just passed $80 million and is going to need to nearly triple that to get even. In other words, it is looking like Paramount’s biggest loser since last year’s The Running Man.
Black Bear got into the distribution business last November with the release of Christy with Sydney Sweeney which grossed just $1.95 million. Its next release was January’s Jason Statham-led action film Shelter, which got the studio its highest opening weekend to date ($5.53 million) and biggest domestic gross ($12.8 million). Six days before that film’s opening, Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson’s Wicker premiered to praise at the Sundance Film Festival. (It currently has a 94% approval with critics.) Black Bear acquired North American rights to the film in February and released the film with Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård this weekend to its best opening so far with $5.75 million in 1,471 theaters. Its releases of Christy, Shelter, In the Grey and Spa Weekend launched in over 2,000 theaters.
Rob Savage’s Other Mommy ended its third weekend with $3.8 million bringing its total to $51.5 million. The horror film not screened for critics and has ended up with a 19% approval (the worst critic score of the year for a film opening in over 3,000 theaters) has nevertheless been a success for Universal and Blumhouse. The $19 million production has made nearly $95 million globally and should be finding itself with more than $100 million by next week.
Georgia Oakley’s new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility made $3.4 million in its second weekend. It is up to $13.6 million in 10 days in North America. $20 million now appears to be out of its reach domestically. Globally, the film has passed the $25.9 million that 2020’s Emma with Anya Taylor-Joy made before the pandemic shut down theaters. But not by much, with $29.4 million to date.
Brian Duffield’s adaptation of Daniel Kraus’ Whalefall fell back to eighth place this week. Reviews have been better than Digger, but the film has done about as much as the Tom Cruise made in its first 10 days ($14.07 million vs. Digger’s $14.43 million.) Whalefall’s sophomore weekend was the same ($3.2 million) and its budget is only about a third of that film, but Whalefall, which has made just $31.3 million worldwide, is still shaping up to be another big disappointment for 20th Century Studios coming on the heels of Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars. At least they still have The Devil Wears Prada 2 this year to cushion the fall. Maybe Whalefall can get a quick critical reevaluation like Digger. Someone call Guillermo Del Toro and Neil Young.
The Hooververse managed to get one more week in the top ten. Verity rounds out the list with $3.06 million bringing its total to $71.5 million and over $162 million worldwide. It Ends With Us grossed over $350 million globally while Regretting You and Reminders of Him each finished with around $90 million. Every one of them has been a success. Verity is Amazon/MGM’s third highest-grossing domestic release after mega-hit Project Hail Mary and mega-bomb Red One. Resident Evil rounds out the list with $3 million itself. It has now grossed over $153 million after six weekends (passing Zach Cregger’s Weapons) and $384 million worldwide. We’ll see if a Halloween bump on Saturday can keep it around for one more week in the top 10.
Beyond the Top 10: Heart of the Beast Pulls $160 Million Globally, Klara and the Sun Struggles
David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast with Brad Pitt fell out of the top 10 but still pulled in another $2.3 million to bring its total to $62.3 million domestic and over $160 million globally. Not enough to be a financial success but a nice word-of-mouth hit for theaters. Also for the dads, Ken Russell’s The Devils was held in theaters for another week by Warner Bros. Clockwork. It fell 76.5% to $405,000 but the NC-17 film has still grossed over $3.1 million back in theaters.
Anton Corbjn’s A Talent for Murder with Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenrich and Olivia Cooke grossed $717,864 in 876 theaters, a per-theater-average of $819. The Bleecker Street release has a 78% with critics. They also still have Musk in 63 theaters (down from 472 last week.) The four-hour documentary made $71,530 over the weekend to bring its total to $643,432. Neon expanded Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord into 107 theaters (up from 13) where it grossed $333,000. Netflix’s awards hopeful La Bola Negra fell just 11% in its nine theaters grossed $245,000 for a total of over $650,000 in ten days.
Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun entered its opening week with just a 25% approval after reviews from the London Film Festival. The Jenna-Ortega-as-a-robot film is finishing the weekend with just a 24% approval and an opening of just $725,000 in 880 theaters, a per-theater-average of just $823. Waititi obviously found mega-success with his two Thor films and a modest showing for his Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit ($33.3 million) but beyond that has never had a film reach $10 million. Klara and the Sun cost a reported $20 million and it appears Sony just gave up on it with this kind of launch.
In better news, Sony Classics’ release of Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket In New York made $141,000 in six theaters. The film which has a 97% approval from critics garnered a $23,000 per-theater-average. That is Sony Classics’ best PTA since before the pandemic when Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory opened in October 2019 to $152,636 in four theaters; a $38,159 PTA. If the estimates hold sturdy, Pickpocket’s PTA would actually be Sony Classics’ 10th best since 2016:
Paris Can Wait ($103,233), The Rider ($61,346), Pain and Glory ($38,159), Happy End ($33,070), Grandma ($28,885), Miles Ahead ($28,633), The Wife ($27,071), Elle ($25,467), Call Me By Your Name ($24,713), The Only Living Pickpocket In New York ($23,000)
On The Vine: A Horror-less Halloween Weekend
Hollywood apparently did not have much to offer during Halloween weekend. Instead, we get a different holiday film with Christmas At The Kringles. It’s a kinda-horror film with Ron Livingston from Briarcliff and we’ll see if it even makes the chart next week. Disney will at least have the IMAX advantage with its limited release of Everest: The Other Side. Documentaries are all the rage right now so maybe it can sneak in. Samuel Goldwyn also has Liam Neeson going very fast in a car as he flees a murder. The Mongoose also stars Marisa Tomei and Ving Rhames. See all the upcoming releases here.
Full List of Box Office Results: October 23-25
- Clayface – $24.0 million ($24.0 million total)
- You Can See Everything – $19.5 million ($45.1 million total)
- Wildwood – $11.6 million ($11.6 million total)
- Street Fighter – $8.6 million ($46.9 million total)
- Wicker – $5.7 million ($5.7 million total)
- Other Mommy – $3.8 million ($51.5 million total)
- Sense and Sensibility – $3.4 million ($13.6 million total)
- Whalefall – $3.2 million ($14.0 million total)
- Verity – $3.06 million ($71.5 million total)
- Resident Evil – $3.00 million ($153.6 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
