Elizabeth Holmes Documentary ‘You Can See Everything’ Out-Earns Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ in Just 4 Days
Hollywood loves a David-versus-Goliath box office story, and this fall has delivered a particularly striking one. On one side is a studio-backed star vehicle with a budget measured in the hundreds of millions, and on the other is a nearly 3-hour documentary made for a fraction of the cost. The ‘You Can See Everything’ box office run is quickly becoming the sleeper story of the season.
The Goliath in question is ‘Digger,’ the Alejandro G. Iñárritu satire starring Tom Cruise as oil tycoon Digger Rockwell. It arrived Oct. 2 with a reported production budget of $125 million, though some reports put it as high as $150 million. It opened to just $8 million in the US and Canada and about $20 million worldwide, the lowest opening for Cruise in nearly 2 decades.
Now A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary has passed it. After just 4 days in release, ‘You Can See Everything‘ sits at roughly $18 million domestically, edging past the $17 million ‘Digger’ has earned. That’s a remarkable swap given that ‘Digger’ had a 2-week head start.
‘You Can See Everything’ has surpassed ‘Digger’ at the domestic box office after just 4 days. • You Can See Everything – $18M • Digger – $17M https://t.co/U7b0oyBJ24
— MovieHub (@moviehubnow) October 20, 2026
The numbers behind the milestone are striking. ‘You Can See Everything’ opened Oct. 16 on only 855 screens and earned an estimated $15 million, with more than 2,000 sold-out showings, according to A24. That is the biggest opening for a non-concert documentary since Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ in 2004, and the biggest for any film on fewer than 1,000 screens since ‘Borat’ in 2006.
It finished second at the weekend box office, behind only the video game reboot ‘Street Fighter,’ which opened on 3,575 screens. Its per-screen average of $17,544 dwarfed the leader’s $8,671.
The film itself has an unusual pedigree. Co-directed by ‘The Rehearsal’ creator Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, it runs 174 minutes and follows Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in the final weeks before she began an 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors. It debuted as a surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last month and carries a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, plus an A- CinemaScore.
The contrast with ‘Digger’ is hard to ignore. ‘You Can See Everything’ reportedly cost under $7 million to make and less than $10 million to market, which means it is already approaching profitability after a single weekend. ‘Digger’ faces the opposite problem, with ticket sales falling about 60% in its second weekend and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 51%.
Audience makeup matters too. More than 70% of the opening-weekend crowd for the documentary was under 35, a pattern similar to other hits this year such as ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession.’ It’s a reminder that younger moviegoers will turn out for something that feels like an event, even when the film is nearly 3 hours long and the subject is a business scandal.
The teaser trailer ‘YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING,’ a documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. In theaters this October. https://t.co/LHRvYLXULH
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 7, 2026
The documentary also dwarfs the year’s other big nonfiction release. Amazon MGM’s ‘Melania’ opened to $7.1 million and finished its entire domestic run at roughly $16 million, which ‘You Can See Everything’ nearly matched in a single weekend.
The biggest test is still ahead. The film expands to a wide nationwide release this weekend, so it should benefit from the buzz and sellouts of its limited debut. Its theatrical-only status for now, with no streaming date announced, adds to the sense that audiences need to catch it on the big screen.
For ‘Digger,’ the road is bleaker. After 17 days in release the film had earned about $17.2 million domestically, and it’s now playing on fewer than 800 screens. Cruise has said he doesn’t make films with opening-weekend takings in mind, but the comparison with a documentary that cost a small fraction of the price makes the gap hard to miss.
Bring on the chaos. DIGGER – in theaters and IMAX TOMORROW. Tickets on sale now. https://t.co/Z1IpSpFnXd https://t.co/WIPuv3HUIO
— Warner Bros. (@warnerbros) October 1, 2026
Taken together, the numbers show how unpredictable the current box office has become. A scrappy, critically adored documentary with a cult comedian at its center has out-earned one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and it did so before reaching most theaters.
Are You Surprised That ‘You Can See Everything’ Has Out-Earned Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’?
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