Clayface opens near $9.5M Friday; Fielder doc eyes $19M

Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ Clayface took an estimated $9.5 million US at North American theatres on Friday, Oct. 23, including $3.5 million from Thursday previews, while A24’s Nathan Fielder documentary You Can See Everything is projected to earn more in its second weekend than it did in its first.

Deadline projected a $23 million to $25 million weekend for Clayface from 3,458 theatres and about $19 million for the documentary, which opened to $15.6 million, according to Cosmic Book News’s summary of Deadline’s Friday figures. The documentary is expanding from 855 theatres to more than 2,500.

The Friday number is an estimate, and official weekend estimates arrive Sunday morning. Final figures follow on Monday.

Boxoffice Pro’s weekend preview, published Oct. 21, forecast $25 million to $30 million for Clayface and $15 million to $20 million for the documentary. World of Reel wrote on Oct. 23 that the $3.5 million in previews landed where the film was tracking and projected $20 million to $23 million for the weekend. It cited a $44 million production budget.

Audience reaction has been strong. World of Reel reported a 94 per cent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.5 stars on PostTrak, the exit-poll service. Cosmic Book News, relaying Deadline, put the audience score at 93 per cent and the critics’ score at 75 per cent. Deadline noted the opening is running above presales. The summary compared the start with Supergirl, which opened to $37.1 million.

You Can See Everything is a documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, co-directed by Fielder, who was born in Vancouver, and Lance Oppenheim. World of Reel reported the film earned $15.6 million from 855 locations last weekend, finished first every day from Monday to Thursday and took in $2.2 million on Thursday. World of Reel reported A24 will expand it to about 2,600 locations. Boxoffice Pro put the expansion at more than 2,500 screens.

We reported that the film opened to $15 million behind Paramount’s Street Fighter, which had taken $12.5 million on its first Friday. Boxoffice Pro lists Street Fighter’s opening weekend at $30.77 million from 3,575 screens and projects $8 million to $13 million for its second weekend.

All figures here are U.S. dollars for the North American market. The sources reviewed did not give Canadian-only box office totals.

Studios release weekend estimates on Sunday, Oct. 25. The projections for the two films sit within a few million dollars of each other, so first place is not settled.

Via Deadline, Boxoffice Pro and World of Reel. Projections are estimates and may change.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.