‘You Can See Everything’ Just Joined a Very Exclusive Documentary Box Office Club
Documentaries don’t usually play like blockbusters. They tend to open in a handful of theaters, collect critical praise and then head to streaming. ‘You Can See Everything‘ has been doing the opposite, building momentum week after week and turning a nearly 3-hour portrait of a Silicon Valley fraudster into a box office story.
The film comes from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim and follows Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans. Its official synopsis says Holmes invited a skeptical film crew to document her every move 34 days before she went to prison. What begins as an intimate portrait becomes a mind-bending 3-year journey.
That unusual project has now passed $50 million domestically. It is only the third non-music documentary ever to reach that mark, joining ‘March of the Penguins’ and ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’. ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ holds the top position among non-music documentaries, with ‘March of the Penguins’ in second place.
Analysts caution that it may be unrealistic to expect ‘You Can See Everything’ to overtake those 2 films. Even so, the milestone is a remarkable result for a movie made on a $7 million budget. It also gives A24 an unexpected hit during the fall season.
The rollout was deliberate. A24 opened the film on October 16 in 855 theaters, a huge footprint for a documentary, and it earned $15.6 million over its first weekend. Rather than going limited or nationwide on more than 2,000 screens right away, the studio built awareness while creating a sense of scarcity.
The second weekend was the real surprise. The film collected $19.5 million from about 2,600 North American locations, 25% more than its opening, which brought its domestic total to $45.1 million. That made it a rare title that grossed more in its second weekend than its first. It also gave A24 the second-biggest weekend for a documentary since ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ took in $23.9 million in 2004.
Word of mouth has done much of the work. The film holds a 98% Tomatometer rating from 186 reviews and a 96% Popcornmeter rating from more than 2,500 audience reviews. Reports point to awards chatter and repeat viewings from audiences trying to make sense of what they saw.
The film premiered as a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival, earning rave reviews and Oscar buzz before moving on to the New York Film Festival. Critics have described a movie that starts as an attempt to humanize Holmes and turns into something much stranger, blending melodrama, detective story, heist film and commentary on the era’s grifter culture.
There is also curiosity about how the project came together. Fielder said he got involved after hearing that Holmes and Evans had tried and failed to pitch a documentary about their lives to A24. He later told Wired that Holmes called him from prison right before the release, the first time they had spoken in half a year.
A24 isn’t stopping at $50 million. The film is reportedly expanding by roughly 600 theaters this Friday, bringing it to 3,243 screens nationwide in a push for the top spot. Only ‘Clayface’ stands in the way, after the DCU movie opened at No. 1 with an estimated $24 million.
If ‘You Can See Everything’ gets there, it would be the first non-music documentary to top the box office since ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ did it in 2004. The film also arrives in UK and Ireland cinemas in November, which could add to its momentum.
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
For a filmmaker best known for the parody reality show ‘Nathan for You’, it is a striking moment. Fielder co-directed his first feature, and it has already placed him among the biggest names in documentary box office history. The coming weeks will show how far it can climb.
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