‘Clayface’ Eyes the Top Spot at the Box Office as an Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Closes In
Opening weekends rarely feel as unpredictable as this one. A DC horror movie that a month ago looked like a sure thing for first place now has to fight off an A24 documentary that nobody expected to be a hit. It’s the kind of matchup that makes box office watchers glued to Friday-night estimates.
The stakes are high for everyone involved. The newly merged Paramount and Warner Bros. is looking for another win after last weekend’s ‘Street Fighter,’ and DC Studios needs a bounce after a rocky summer. Meanwhile, the documentary has been building momentum all week.
Deadline’s Friday update has ‘Clayface‘ taking shape as the weekend’s leader with an estimated $23 million to $25 million opening across 3,458 theaters, while ‘You Can See Everything’ is close behind at about $19 million. The R-rated body horror film earned $9.5 million on Friday including $3.5 million in Thursday previews. It’s a solid start for a movie with a $44 million budget.
Audience reaction has been strong. Fans who attended previews gave the film 4½ stars on PostTrak, and it holds a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. On opening night, moviegoers also gave it an A- CinemaScore, which is unusually high for a horror movie.
Projections have shifted over the past 2 weeks. One tracker put the opening as low as $15 million to $23 million, while Boxoffice Pro forecast $25 million to $30 million and Variety cited estimates between $25 million and $35 million. The final tally is landing near the lower end of the studio’s hopes, but well above the most pessimistic forecasts.
‘You Can See Everything’ is the story of the weekend. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary about Elizabeth Holmes opened to $15.6 million from just 855 theaters, the largest launch for a nonmusical documentary in 20 years. This weekend it expanded to about 2,600 theaters.
At about $19 million, it’s up 22% from its opening, a rarity for a second weekend. Some rivals think it could climb above $20 million. The film ended its first week with $25.6 million, and about 70% of its audience has been under 35.
The central question is front-loading. Deadline notes that the hope is the DC movie isn’t front-loaded on Friday night, because horror often burns through its fan base early. One analyst pointed out that ‘Clayface’ isn’t getting as many opening-weekend showtimes per location as recent openers like ‘Verity,’ ‘Other Mommy’ and ‘Street Fighter.’
Still, there’s a path to a bigger Saturday and Sunday. If the film plays more like a horror release with less reliance on opening day, it could inch past the documentary. The strong audience grades should help word of mouth through the Halloween period.
Elsewhere, the weekend is a mixed bag. Laika’s stop-motion animated film ‘Wildwood’ has stellar reviews but pulled just $1 million in previews and $3.2 million on opening day, putting it on track for an $11 million to $13 million debut. That’s on par with ‘Kubo and the Two Strings.’
‘Wicker,’ the Black Bear romantic fantasy starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård, made $620,000 in previews and is expected to open to around $6 million. Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ is playing in only 125 locations for one week.
Watch the first trailer for #Clayface. The new DC horror film is in theaters October 23. https://t.co/gqrrtJSou5
— Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 (@RottenTomatoes) April 22, 2026
For DC, a first-place finish would be a symbolic win, especially after the disappointment of ‘Supergirl.’ It would also be the first Warner Bros. release under Skydance ownership to open at the top spot, and the second back-to-back opener for the new Paramount-Warner Bros. combination.
The global picture adds to the optimism. The film is projected to earn an additional $20 million to $25 million overseas for a worldwide opening of $45 million to $55 million, which is already enough to recover its production budget. It’s the last DC release until ‘Man of Tomorrow’ next July, so a strong hold would give the studio some breathing room.
Which movie do you think will take the No. 1 spot at the box office this weekend?
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