Elizabeth Holmes Documentary 'You Can See Everything' Stuns With $15 Million Limited Opening, Second-Biggest Ever for Nonfiction

Documentary opens to historic limited-release numbers

A24's "You Can See Everything," the new documentary on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, collected $15 million in its opening weekend across only 855 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, making it the second-biggest debut ever for a documentary film. The nearly three-hour movie, which first screened secretly at the Telluride Film Festival last month, averaged roughly $17,500 per location — a figure more typical of blockbuster tentpoles than nonfiction cinema. TechCrunch reported that the film had a reported 2,000 sellout screenings, and The Guardian noted it logged a phenomenal $15 million at the box office in its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada. (Koios.News; The Hollywood Reporter; The Guardian)

The film's per-theater average dwarfed that of the weekend's number-one title, "Street Fighter," which earned $51.1 million in wide release across thousands of screens, according to Koios.News citing box-office data. While the action film led in raw dollars, its CinemaScore from opening-night audiences came in at a tepid B-, and Rotten Tomatoes critics gave it just 42 percent approval, though the audience score sat at 82 percent. The Hollywood Reporter critic Frank Scheck called "Street Fighter" a "jumbled tonal mess" and "only sporadically entertaining," a negative assessment that applies to the video-game adaptation, not the Holmes documentary.

Unprecedented access and a metatextual structure

What distinguishes "You Can See Everything" from the many prior tellings of the Holmes saga — books, podcasts, TV series, and earlier documentaries — is the access Fielder and Oppenheim secured. TechCrunch reported the filmmakers were given extensive access to Holmes and her family in the month before she reported to prison for her 11-year fraud sentence. The Guardian described how the first half of the film takes place entirely in 2023, with Fielder, Oppenheim, and a small crew embedding with Holmes, her husband Billy Evans, and their two small children in the run-up to her surrender. The back half picks up in 2025, after Holmes has spent time in prison, in what TechCrunch characterized as an increasingly surreal, metatextual odyssey.

Critics and audiences respond with near-unanimous praise

Review aggregators show extraordinary consensus. The documentary holds a 99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 117 reviews counted so far, and an unprecedented Metacritic score of 99 out of 100, placing it 24th on that site's all-time list. On Letterboxd, it stands as the highest-rated title ever with a 4.8 score. The Guardian reported it is effectively the highest-rated cinema release ever on the platform. Those numbers contrast sharply with the divided reception for "Street Fighter" and underscore how thoroughly the Holmes film has landed with both critics and early audiences. (TechCrunch; The Hollywood Reporter)

Fielder's casting choices extend the meta layer

Adding another reflexive dimension, Fielder recruited Amanda Seyfried — who starred as Holmes in Hulu's 2022 dramatization "The Dropout" — to appear in the documentary. The Guardian described her as "shockingly game (and possibly awards-worthy)" in the role. Fielder's involvement, coming off his HBO series "The Rehearsal," made the project intriguing to observers well before its release, and the film's structure — blending observational footage with staged reenactments and direct-to-camera addresses — has drawn comparisons to his earlier work. (TechCrunch)

Rajinikanth's 'Jailer 2' dominates globally, debuts modestly in North America

While the Holmes documentary captured specialty-box-office attention, the weekend's biggest global earner was "Jailer 2," the Tamil-language action comedy starring Rajinikanth. Variety reported the film grossed an estimated $31.2 million worldwide over the October 16–18 frame, ranking as the second-biggest film in the world behind "Street Fighter." The four-day extended opening in India brought in an estimated INR224 crore ($23.5 million), the third-highest start on record for a Tamil-language film and effectively level with Rajinikanth's previous vehicle "Coolie." In North America, where Shloka Entertainments handles distribution, the film debuted at No. 9 with $3.2 million over the Friday-to-Sunday period, bringing its domestic total to $5.2 million. (Koios.News)

Other notable openings and a Netflix first

Focus Features' "Sense and Sensibility" took in $3.2 million on Friday including previews for an estimated $6.7 million opening from 2,545 North American theaters, per The Hollywood Reporter. Netflix released the Oscar contender "La Bola Negra" in just four theaters, marking the first time the streamer has publicly reported box-office returns for a title. Meanwhile, Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Reckoning," a follow-up to "The Social Network," opened to a disappointing $5.5 million the previous weekend and has already fallen out of the top ten. Next weekend's slate includes "Clayface," "Wildwood," "Klara and the Sun," "Ali G: Who Iz I?" and "Wicker," according to The Hollywood Reporter. (Koios.News)

What comes next for the Holmes documentary

With near-perfect critical scores and record-breaking limited-release performance, "You Can See Everything" enters the awards conversation as a serious best-picture contender — a rarity for a documentary. The Guardian noted it has solid odds to become the first nonfiction film ever nominated for the top Oscar prize. Whether A24 expands the theater count beyond the current 855 screens will determine how long the per-screen averages hold and whether the film can translate critical heat into broader commercial legs. For now, the weekend's results illustrate a fragmented marketplace where a three-hour documentary about a convicted fraudster can outperform per-screen expectations while a wide-release video-game adaptation wins the gross tally with a B- from paying customers. (Koios.News)