‘You Can See Everything’ Posts the Biggest Second Friday Ever for a Documentary as A24’s Elizabeth Holmes Phenomenon Keeps Climbing

Documentaries rarely behave like blockbusters. They open small, build slowly and usually fade as the weeks pass, which is why their box office totals tend to be modest. A24’s latest release has ignored all of that and turned the format’s usual rules upside down.

The film is a nearly 3-hour look at Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in the weeks before she began an 11-year federal prison sentence. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim made it over 4 years on a budget under $10 million, and it premiered at the Telluride Film Festival before opening in theaters. Its first weekend was one of the most surprising in recent memory.

‘You Can See Everything‘ has now posted the biggest second Friday ever for a documentary, according to a new box office update. It expanded from 855 to 2,655 theaters this weekend and earned a reported $6.1 million on Friday, up 17.6% from its opening day and ahead of the $5.3 million that ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ made on its second Friday, which was down 38.6% from its first. A rise like that is almost unheard of for a second frame.

It feels like an #OBSESSION craze dejavu at US #BoxOffice! Expanded from 855 to 2.655 theatres yesterday, #A24’s 3h long documentary phenomenon #YouCanSeeEverything’s 2nd frame poised to be higher than its opening! SPECTACULAR 6.1M on BIGGEST 2nd FRI EVER for documentaries, going actually up +17.6%(!!!) from last FRI Opening Day, beating #Fahrenheit911’s 5.3M, -38.6% previous record! The 3h long doc hits a 31.8M cume, already beating #BornToBeWild’s 26M & #Chimpanzee’s 29M entire runs, as the #6 highest grossing non-music doc of ALL TIME in the U.S. Eyeing a HISTORIC 19M-22M 2nd 3-day weekend, going up 21%-41% from opening.

— Luiz Fernando (@Luiz_Fernando_J) October 24, 2026

The figures aren’t completely settled. Deadline’s early Friday report put the day at $5.8 million, a 5% increase from the previous Friday, and it projected a second weekend of about $19 million. The $6.1 million figure reflects a later update, and either way, the direction is the same.

The 2 estimates track with the film’s cumulative total. It grossed $25.6 million through last Thursday, and adding a $6.1 million Friday lifts the 10-day total to roughly $31.8 million. That puts it ahead of the full runs of ‘Born to Be Wild’ at $26 million and ‘Chimpanzee’ at $29 million, and reportedly makes it the 6th-highest-grossing non-music documentary in US history.

Projections for the second weekend range from about $19 million to $22 million, which would be 21% to 41% higher than the $15.6 million opening. Deadline expects a 3-day total of around $19 million, which would be up 22%. That would push the 10-day take to $44.6 million.

The film is also in a close race for first place. ‘Clayface’ is estimated at $23 million to $25 million, but analysts have said the documentary could challenge it if the superhero film is front-loaded. Final figures arrive on Sunday.

The expansion follows a first weekend that broke records. The film opened to $15.6 million from 855 theaters, a per-theater average of $18,247, which was the biggest opening for a documentary in more than 2 decades. Excluding concert films, only ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ opened bigger, with $23.9 million in 2004.

It was also the biggest opening on fewer than 1,000 screens since ‘Borat’ in 2006. A24 reported more than 2,000 sold-out screenings, and many showings in New York and Los Angeles sold out despite the film’s 174-minute runtime.

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

Critical reaction has been extraordinary. The film holds a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a record-high Letterboxd rating of 4.8. Roughly 70% of the opening-weekend audience was under 35, and the audience was split 55% male and 45% female.

Reviewers have described it as a genre-bending film that blurs documentary and performance. Fielder appears on camera interviewing Holmes and her partner Billy Evans, and the story goes in unexpected directions. That secretive, conversation-starting quality has helped turn the film into a cultural event.

The film’s success has also fueled awards talk. Gold Derby has it as the front-runner for Best Documentary Feature, and some commentators say it could land a Best Picture nomination. Oppenheim has also been in the spotlight this year for ‘Primetime.’

For A24, which has had other surprise hits this year, the results show how a smaller, riskier project can find an audience. The marketing budget was also under $10 million, so the returns are far beyond what most documentaries could imagine.

The key question is how long the film can sustain its momentum. Second-weekend increases are rare, and a third weekend will test whether the wider release is driving curiosity or genuine word of mouth. So far, the audience reaction suggests the latter.

If the film continues to climb, it could challenge the lifetime totals of some of the biggest documentaries ever released. It’s already rewritten expectations.

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