Elizabeth Holmes documentary opens to 15 million dollars

The Elizabeth Holmes documentary 'You Can See Everything' opened to 15 million dollars in North American cinemas at the weekend — the biggest documentary debut in more than twenty years. Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the nearly three-hour film took that sum from just 855 screens, with more than 2,000 sold-out screenings according to production company A24. The last documentary to open bigger was Fahrenheit 9/11, which made nearly 24 million dollars from 868 theaters in 2004.

Fielder made the film in secret over three years and spent more than a month with Holmes — the disgraced Theranos founder — her two young children and her partner Billy Evans in her final days before she reported to federal prison. The film carries 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, a 99 on Metacritic, and a 91 percent 'definite recommend' in PostTrak exit polls, described as unprecedented. More than 70 percent of the opening audience was under 35; other hits this year, 'Backrooms' and 'Obsession' among them, were likewise driven by younger viewers. The film reportedly cost less than 7 million dollars to make and less than 10 million to market.

'Everybody underestimated the movie, because on paper this is like, wait, a three-hour documentary?' Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, told the Associated Press. 'Elizabeth Holmes is just a character that you couldn't even make up. It's stranger than fiction, and that's really compelling.'

The surrounding weekend made the economics plain. 'Street Fighter' topped the chart with a 51-million-dollar global opening on a reported 82-million-dollar budget. Disney's 'Whalefall,' a 60-million-dollar survival thriller with better reviews, opened fourth with 8 million dollars from 3,065 locations. Alex Gibney's four-hour Musk documentary expanded to 472 screens and took 306,702 dollars, having been refused advertising on X, the platform Musk owns, and on TikTok.

The three-hour documentary about the Theranos founder made nearly twice 'Whalefall's' take from fewer than a third of its screens.