Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Scores $15M Opening
The elizabeth holmes documentary nobody was supposed to know about has become one of the biggest documentary openings in box office history. “You Can See Everything,” co-directed by “The Rehearsal” creator Nathan Fielder and filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, pulled in an estimated $15 million over the weekend from just 855 theaters, with more than 2,000 shows selling out completely.
A $15 Million Weekend From 855 Screens
The numbers are remarkable for the scale. The nearly three-hour film played in a fraction of the theaters of the weekend’s top grosser, Paramount’s “Street Fighter,” which took roughly $31 million from 3,575 locations. It is the second-biggest opening weekend ever for a documentary and the highest-grossing nonmusical documentary since Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004. Reviews have been rapturous — the film holds 99 percent on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic — and it expands to wide release next weekend.
Made in Secret With Holmes Herself
A24 produced the film in secret over three years and first revealed it with a mystery screening at the Telluride Film Festival last month, where the directors asked the sold-out audience not to reveal its twists. The filmmakers were granted extensive access to Holmes and her family in the month before she reported to federal prison on an 11-year sentence for defrauding Theranos investors, and the film also follows her two years into her term. The rise and fall of the blood-testing startup has already been told in books, podcasts, a scripted series, and other documentaries — but reviewers say Fielder’s deadpan presence turns this one into something stranger and more metatextual.
Wide Release Next, Oscar Buzz Already
Pundits are already floating the idea of a best picture nomination, which would be a first for a documentary. It was the Holmes film — not the weekend’s chart-topper — that owned the cultural conversation: a strange, sold-out phenomenon built on three years of total secrecy.
Source: The New York Times