Clayface-Wins the Weekend While a 3-Hour Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Keeps Growing
DC took a risk with Clayface. It's an R-rated, fairly low-budget horror movie about a Batman villain, and Batman isn't in it. So far, the risk is paying off.
The film made $10.4 million on Friday, including previews, and is on track for a $24 to $25 million opening. That's enough for No. 1 at the box office. It's the second straight weekend at the top for the newly combined Paramount and Warner Bros., after Street Fighter won last weekend.
The audience reaction is the bigger news. Clayface earned an A- CinemaScore, the same grade as James Gunn's Superman. That's unusual for DC (Supergirl got a B- and The Flash a B), and even more unusual for horror, which usually lands in the B or C range. James Watkins directed the movie from a Mike Flanagan script. Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, a Hollywood actor whose face, well, falls apart. The net budget was about $44 million.
The real surprise of the weekend, though, is a documentary. A24's You Can See Everything is a three-hour film about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Its second weekend is expected to come in 22% to 28% higher than its first, around $19 to $20 million, as it expanded to 2,655 theaters. Documentaries almost never grow that much, and some in the industry think it could reach $80 million domestically.
Laika's stop-motion film Wildwood is headed for about $11 million with an A CinemaScore. The Olivia Colman comedy Wicker looks like a solid $5.5 to $6 million. Taika Waititi's Klara and the Sun, starring Jenna Ortega, is struggling.
Overall, the weekend is tracking around $97.6 million, about 29% ahead of the same weekend last year.
