Audiences continued to flock to “You Can See Everything,” as the twisty documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes captured the zeitgeist and saw revenue increase in its second weekend. The A24 film grossed $19.5 million on its second frame, a 25% improvement over its $15.6 million opening. Few films see their revenues increase in this way.
However, the film expanded its theater count, which helped increase ticket sales. “You Can See Everything” is showing in 2,655 theaters, up from 855 for its debut the previous weekend. Its popularity is notable given that “You Can See Everything” is a three-hour documentary that presents itself as a largely commercial feature film. This helped A24 shroud the film in secrecy, convincing audiences that the only way to avoid spoilers was to buy a ticket.
Produced for just $7 million, “You Can See Everything” grossed $45.1 million, making it one of the most successful non-fiction films in history. Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” an anti-Bush treatise released in the midst of the controversial 2004 presidential election, remains the highest-grossing documentary with just over $222 million in revenue. “You Can See Everything” easily surpassed “Melania,” which had been the highest-grossing documentary of the year with its $16.3 million gross. This look at the gilded life of America’s First Lady was much less profitable given that Jeff Bezos and Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the rights (they love non-fiction cinema!).
Will box office success propel “You Can See Everything” and its directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim into the Oscar race? The jury is still out on this, although price prognosticators have written a lot, a lot, a lot words on the subject.
Even if the documentary branch excludes Fielder and Oppenheim or if “You Can See Everything” fails to be the first documentary to land a Best Picture nomination, it will still be a huge success for A24, extending a torrid streak at the box office. This year, the studio released “Backrooms,” the biggest blockbuster in its history with a worldwide haul of $400 million, along with winners like “Primetime” and “The Drama.” And he did it by proving that audiences will show up to movie theaters for more than just superhero movies and sequels. It turns out they’re also interested in Silicon Valley extinctions.
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