The U.S. box office this weekend crowned a clear and unusual winner: the documentary You Can See Everything. Despite opening in only 855 theaters (roughly a quarter of the footprint of the rest of the top 5), being a documentary, and running for more than three hours, the film directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim secured an excellent second place by grossing $15 million.
We are talking about the best debut for a film in fewer than 1,000 locations since 2006, and the best opening for a documentary since Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’ in 2004. And it doubles the $7 million earned this year by ‘Melania’, the curiously tailored documentary about the First Lady.
Moreover, the interest was such that many cinemas posted the “sold out” sign, so it would not be surprising if the film rose in its second week, something few titles manage to do.
‘You Can See Everything’ has also exceeded A24’s expectations, which adds another notch and can boast of having already recouped the film, which had a budget of $7 million.
Shot in secret over three years, the film follows Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans, a month before she enters prison to serve an eleven-year sentence for fraud. Holmes was the founder of the defunct Theranos, which claimed to have invented a device capable of performing portable blood analyses with just a drop, a claim later shown to be fraudulent.
The story was adapted for television in the miniseries ‘The Dropout: Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes’, in which Amanda Seyfried played Holmes. Holmes granted unrestricted access to her private life to the two directors a month before her imprisonment. During that period, and in later conversations, the couple’s quirks were revealed, with Evans exerting great control over his partner’s life, who continues to deny having lied knowingly and remains interested in creating a blood-analysis device.
‘Street Fighter’ wins but fails to convince at the box office
The weekend’s top spot went to the premiere of ‘Street Fighter’. If a few weeks ago it was ‘Resident Evil’s’ turn, now another video game classic is attempting a reboot of its story. In this case, the film opened with $31 million, figures at the lower end of Paramount’s forecasts, for a release that seems to have left audiences and critics rather cold.
When you add in the international box office, the film has grossed around $51 million worldwide. A figure that, while not great, seems sufficient to recoup the $82 million budget in the coming weeks. By the way, reactions have been quite similar to the 1994 film Street Fighter, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, so perhaps there was no need to reboot to achieve the same result.
In third place, The Other Mother manages to hold on despite a 70% drop from its debut. Jessica Chastain’s film has drawn poor reviews, but it already accumulates more than $78 million worldwide.
The rest of the top five of the week is completed with more premieres, with four new titles occupying four of the five top spots, something we haven’t seen in a long time. Fourth place goes to Whalefall, which adds another setback for Disney, this time under the 20th Century Studios banner. In this case, this peculiar action film starring Austin Abrams also fails to meet the studio’s forecasts and nets only $8 million on a $60 million budget. Worldwide the film collects barely $17.5 million, so it seems unlikely it will reach profitability in theaters.
Rounding out the top five is a new remake of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ with $7.2 million, which lifts to $18.5 million with its international box office. The film carried a budget of around $25 million, so its profitability is much more manageable and almost assured.
The Indian ‘Jailer 2’ sneaks into the ninth spot of the box office
We continue descending the box office ladder and the second half of the top 10 is filled with familiar titles. Verity. The Shadow of a Deceit, Resident Evil and In the Heart of the Beast occupy the sixth, seventh and eighth places with $6.2 million, $5.5 million and $4.8 million respectively. Of the three, Resident Evil is the one with the strongest running total, rising to $148.4 million in the United States and $361 million internationally.
In ninth place is an Indian premiere, ‘Jailer 2’, which, despite opening in only 420 theaters, earns $3.2 million in its debut. The film again demonstrates the strength of the Indian community in the United States and how it approaches the biggest Bollywood successes.
Rounding out the top 10 is The Forgotten Island in its fourth week, with $2.2 million added to its total $35.1 million. Worldwide, the animated film reaches $60.3 million.
‘The Black Ball’ opens a new era for Netflix
Dropping to the 21st position we find The Black Ball. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s film debuted this week in the United States opening in just 4 cinemas. It did so by grossing $277,500, an average of $69,375 per screen.
The figures include several records, such as the second-best opening for a non-English-language film only behind Parasite, but they must be taken with a grain of salt due to the limited number of venues where it opened.
What the film marks is the beginning of a new era for Netflix, which shifts its stance entirely on theatrical releases. Up to now the streamer only released films in cinemas to comply with awards rules, and often refused to publish box-office data.
With The Black Ball this changes. It is the first time Netflix has offered official data. Additionally, the film will have its 47 days of theatrical release and it will not arrive on the platform until December 2 in the United States.
It would seem, at first glance, to be the first in a series. We will be watching the film’s evolution as more screens come online next week.
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