‘Clayface’ Scares Up a Surprisingly Strong Thursday Night, but Can It Survive the Elizabeth Holmes Factor?

DC Studios needed some good news. After weeks of shaky tracking and nervous box office chatter, its R-rated body-horror experiment finally got a real number to point to. The ‘Clayface‘ Thursday previews arrived just in time for Halloween weekend, and the early read is more encouraging than many expected.

The film is the third DCU release, and it arrives after ‘Supergirl’ underperformed over the summer. Tracking has bounced around all month, with some projections once as high as $23 million to $33 million before presales sent others below $20 million. One forum had the film pacing roughly 80% behind ‘Supergirl’ at the same point in its sales cycle, and with a reported budget of $44 million, every dollar matters.

Now the preview night has delivered. According to a Deadline exclusive, DC’s lower-budget genre movie is off to a solid start with an estimated $3.5 million from Thursday previews, and possibly more. Domestic weekend forecasts sit between $20 million and $25 million, which would give the newly combined Paramount-Warner Bros. a second back-to-back No. 1 opener after last weekend’s ‘Street Fighter’ ($31 million).

‘Clayface’ is "off to a solid start" with Thursday night previews Hitting an "estimated $3.5M, if not more" (@DEADLINE | https://t.co/1tt7L6k6z5) https://t.co/Ke46nlfLx5

— Superman Saga News (@SuperSagaNews) October 23, 2026

Previews started at 2 p.m., and the comparisons are flattering. The $3.5 million tops ‘Kraven the Hunter,’ which earned $2 million in previews and opened to $11 million. It’s not far behind ‘Birds of Prey,’ which took $4 million in previews before opening to $33 million.

Next to horror films, ‘Clayface’ lands close to ‘Other Mommy,’ which had $3.6 million in previews and a $27.8 million opening. It’s also ahead of 2022’s ‘Smile,’ which started with $2 million in previews and opened to $22.6 million. And it nearly triples ‘Digger,’ which managed $1.2 million in previews and an $8 million opening.

The critics have been kinder to ‘Clayface’ than to most recent DC movies. The film heads into the weekend Certified Fresh at 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s higher than ‘The Flash’ (63%), ‘Supergirl’ (52%), ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ (31%), ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ (49%) and ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ (33%), and just shy of ‘Birds of Prey’ at 79%.

Reviews were also fairly mixed in places, with a 59 on Metacritic. But a fresh score helps a horror movie that needs word of mouth to carry it beyond the first night.

The biggest threat to the No. 1 spot isn’t another superhero. A24’s ‘You Can See Everything’ earned $2.3 million on Wednesday alone, and it’s expanding from 855 theaters to roughly 2,600 on Friday after a $15.6 million opening. One outlet projects it at $18 million or more, and Gold Derby predicts $21 million for the doc against $25 million for ‘Clayface.’

Forecasts for DC’s film remain wide. Boxoffice Pro has it at $25 million to $30 million, while Box Office Theory sits at $15 million to $23 million, noting that presale samples lagged behind ‘Supergirl.’ The hope, as Deadline notes, is that the movie isn’t front-loaded tonight, with all eyes on how the doc holds up.

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

Whatever the opening, the math is tough. With an estimated $30 million in marketing on top of the production budget, some outlets say it must approach $100 million worldwide to break even. Variety has projected a global opening of $45 million to $55 million, with $20 million to $25 million overseas from 76 markets.

Still, a solid preview night, good reviews and a Halloween release give the film a real shot at a profit. It’s also the last DC movie until ‘Man of Tomorrow’ next July, so the stakes are high for the studio’s momentum.

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