‘Clayface’ Takes Shape As No. 1 With $24M+; ‘You Can See Everything’ Wowing With Possible $20M Second Weekend – Box Office Update

UPDATED SATURDAY AM: Refresh for more updates and chart….Clayface wants it to be known that no matter how many googly eyes memes that Elizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder put out there, the weekend is his to lord. The James Watkins directed DC movie came with a much better than expected Friday/previews of $10.4M, which is now pointing to a $24M-$25M opening, another back-to-back No. 1 win for the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. There’s a turnout here by the 18-34 at 73% with Hispanic and Latino moviegoers strong at 35% as well as Caucasian at 36%. The South and South Central overperformed. Clayface gets–wow–an A- CinemaScore, the same as James Gunn’s Superman. That exit is big for a DC movie (Supergirl was a B-, The Flash was a B) as well as a genre title which typically fall in the B or C range.

Get this, no Imax (Street Fighter booked two weeks) but PLFs are delivering close to half the weekend’s gross. AMC Burbank is the pic’s top venue with $51K. Clayface‘s social media reach was in excess of 363M across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X heading into the weekend per RelishMix, which is ahead of M3GAN‘s 330M reach. Great job here getting the movie open considering social media diagnostics for the film are -47% below other DC and Marvel movies.

This is also a nice tee-off to go into Halloween, which will be likely be a disastrous weekend as the holiday falls on a Saturday next weekend.

A24’s You Can See Everything is having the type of second weekend jumps (+22% to +28%) we saw with Obsession with a an awesome 3-day between $19M-$20M, after a $6.1M second Friday. The Lance Oppenheim and Fielder co-directed movie remains 5 stars with a great 79% definite recommend on PostTrak, and an even 50/50 split between men and women. Under 35 is 66% with Caucasian leading at 62%, Hispanic and Latino at 14%, Asian American at 12%, and Black at 8%. Where is the domestic endgame for this 3-hour ground-breaking documentary? Some believe $80M in North America sounds sweet.

Laika sixth feature Wildwood via Fathom Entertainment is still pointing to an $11M opening after a $4.2M Friday. That’s not far from a big studio theatrical animated release, DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s Forgotten Island which bowed to $13M. All this bodes well for a nice awards season run; all of the Laika movies notching Oscar nominations. The Travis Knight directed movie gets an A CinemaScore, ahead of Laika’s 2019 Missing Link (B+) and the same as the filmmaker’s Kubo and the Two Strings (A).

PLFs are delivering 15% of the weekend with the movie’s best region being the west with 32% of the gross versus a norm of 26% for other movies in the marketplace. AMC Burbank is Wildwood‘s best location with $29K. Male-female split of 49% to 51%, with the general audience repping 94% to parents and kids under 12 at 7%. Essentially, the movie is playing to the cinephile audience. Parents gave it 4 1/2 stars while kids under 12 gave it 5 but a 61% must-see-right-away. Girls are outweighing boys, 56% to 44%. Diversity demos are 52% Caucasian, 25% Latino and Hispanic, 10% Asian American and 9% Black.

Black Bear’s period sex comedy Wicker starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgard, Elizabeth Debicki and Peter Dinklage posted a $2.36M Friday (including previews) for what’s shaping up to be a a very good $5.5M-$6M opening at 1,471. Topic Studios bankrolled the movie before Black Bear acquired out of Sundance. Excellent PostTrak exits with a solid 92% in the top two boxes and a 74% definite recommend for the general audience. It’s a female destination at 79% with best plays in South, South Central and West. AMC Burbank is winning again with a new entry this weekend here at $21K. Diversity demos are 45% Caucasian, 28% Latino and Hispanic, 10% Black, and 10% Asian American.

Sony, 3000 Pictures, Spyglass Media Group’s Jenna Ortega starring, Taika Waititi directed Klara and the Sun began its moderate release and there was nothing bright about it with $300K at 880 locations with an expected opening of $725K.

The entire weekend is looking like $97.6M for all movies, which is +29% ahead of the same weekend a year ago, very good.

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UPDATED FRIDAY PM: Right now, Warner Bros/DC’s R-rated Clayface is puffing its chest with a $9.5 million Friday (including previews) and an estimated $23M-$25M opening weekend at 3,458 theaters. If that comes to be it’s a solid start in the vicinity of other mid-October genre movies like Smile ($22.6M opening) and last year’s Black Phone 2 ($27.2M).

But it still remains to be seen what type of blood transfusion audiences give Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes this weekend as the A24 documentary You Can See Everything is coming on strong with a $5.8M Friday, up 5% from a week ago, and what’s looking to be an awesome $19M+ second weekend after its wide expansion from 855 locations to 2,655.

That will get the 10 -day total for the doc to $44.6M. Some rivals think a $20M+ second weekend remains a possibility. But at a $19M second frame, You Can See Everything is up 22% from its opening. Obsession was +39% in its second weekend (though that was during a Memorial Day weekend).

At this point in time, Clayface is keeping himself together for a No. 1 finish atop the domestic charts after great audience scores (93% on RT) and solid reviews (75%).

RelishMix says, “Convo runs positive for Clayface with a felling that James Gunn has finally cracked the code on how to make a villain movie, without Batman holding its hand. Fans see the trailer like a masterclass in restraint, ‘the zero-dialogue approach and letting dread do the talking is working.’ There’s affection bubbling up for Batman: The Animated Series with comments pitching Mr. Freeze, Scarecrow and Poison Ivy follow-ups. Viewers are also spinning Clayface against Spider-Man villain universe, ‘This as the blueprint nobody asked Sony to copy but should have.’ plus, ‘No Dialogue, only horror sounds, and some eerie song playing in the background, THIS is what a horror teaser should be like.’”

Fathom’s theatrical release of Laika’s stop-motion Wildwood is also coming in where it was expected: at $11M+ in third place after a $4.2M Friday (including previews). That’s much better than the Portland, OR studio’s previous movie, 2019’s The Missing Link ($5.9M), which United Artists/Annapurna handled at the time. Travis Knight’s previous Laika movie, Kubo and the Two Strings, released by Focus Features, opened to $12.6M in 2016 and legged out to $48M domestic.

Paramount/Legendary’s Street Fighter is fourth at 3,575 theaters with a second Friday of $2.7M and a three-day of $9.5M, -79%, for a 10-day cume of $47.8M.

In No. 5 is Black Bear’s $2.5M domestic acquisition of period sex comedy Wicker, with a first Friday (plus previews) of $2.4M and a 3-day of $6M+ at 1,471 locations. This is a great start for Black Bear and an upscale female movie. Audience score on RT is excellent at 94% on par with critical score of 93%.

Outside the top 5 is Sony/Spyglass/TSG’s Klara and the Sun from Taika Waititi and starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams. The movie isn’t looking good at a $300,000 Friday at 880 locations for what’s looking like a 3-day of $900K. Critics refuse to be emotionally moved with 55 reviews at 23% Rotten.

UPDATED FRIDAY AM after Thursday PM exclusive: Warner Bros/DC’s Clayface came in exactly where we spotted it: at $3.5M in previews. We understand the fanboys who showed up last night enjoyed it too with 4 1/2 stars on PostTrak and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Meanwhile, A24’s You Can See Everything ends its first week with $25.6M, compared to Street Fighter‘s $38.3M.

The three-hour Nathan Fielder-Lance Oppenheim documentary bested Street Fighter and was the No. 1 movieon Monday ($2.5M), Wednesday ($2.6M) and Thursday ($2.2M). Tuesday was strong with $2.6M.

Black Bear’s Sundance pickup Wicker is off to a solid specialty start with $620K in previews, and that’s with 92% reviews and 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Pic is booked at 1,471 locations. Previews are above Conclave ($491K, $6.6M opening) and not far from The Social Reckoning ($617K previews, $5M opening), and similar to The Roses, another Olivia Colman movie ($606K, $6.2M opening).

Taika Waititi’s feature take of Klara and the Sun is in limited release this weekend in under 1,000 locations. Previews were shiny with $85K at 782 sites from showtimes that began at 4 p.m.

Here are this week’s grosses:

PREVIOUSLY, Thursday PM EXCLUSIVE: Peter Safran and James Gunn’s DC entry into lower-budget genre movies, Clayface, is off to a solid start in previews Thursday night with an estimated $3.5 million, if not more.

Domestic weekend forecasts are between $20M-$25M, which if that occurs would deliver the newly combined Paramount-Warner Bros its second back-to-back No. 1 opener at the box office after last weekend’s Street Fighter($31M).

Previews started at 2 p.m. today for the James Watkins-directed Clayface, which though based on the Batman villain is a stand-alone story about babyfaced Hollywood actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), who in reaching for the stars falls short, kisses the wrong girl at the party, and — oops — there goes his face. The screenplay by Mike Flanagan in December 2024 got Gunn and Safran excited, and it was off to the races to make this movie, which is coming in at a net production cost of $44M before P&A, shot in the UK.

In regards to preview comps, Clayface‘s money is higher than the R-rated Sony/Marvel movie Kraven the Hunter ($2M previews, $11M dismal opening), and not far from the pre-Covid PG-13 DC spinoff Birds of Prey ($4M previews, $33M opening). Next to horror films, Clayface‘s cash is similar to Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s Other Mommy ($3.6M previews, $27.8M opening) and ahead of 2022’s Smile ($2M previews, $22.6M opening).

The hope is that the DC movie isn’t frontloaded tonight, as all eyes are on the potential hold of A24 documentary You Can See Everything following its great midweek business and fantastic $15.6M opening last weekend. The documentary co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim about Theranos architect Elizabeth Holmes expands to 2,600 locations Friday after bowing in 855 sites.

Clayface glides into the weekend with a 76% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes critics score, which is higher than The Flash (63%), Supergirl (52% Rotten), Joker Folie à Deux (31%), Shazam: Fury of the Gods (49%), James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (33%) and almost as good as Birds of Prey (79% certified fresh).

Note this isn’t the first time in DC movie history that it has ventured into low- to midsized-budget fare. In the early aughts there was DC/Vertigo’s The Losers, in 2010, which cost $25M before P&A and opened to $9.4M and finaled at $23.5M domestic. There was also the Josh Brolin-Megan Fox 2010 fantasy western Jonah Hex, which bombed with a $5.3M opening, $10.5M stateside final next to its $47M production cost. And there was the Wachowskis’ R-rated 2005 feature take of the DC Vertigo title V for Vendetta, which yielded a No. 1 $25.6M North American opening off a $50M production cost. Its final domestic take was $70.5M, and $134.7M global.

We’re hearing that previews for the Fathom release of Laika’s stop-motion animated title Wildwood is around $1M. The hope is that the Travis Knight-directed movie can break double-digits in its opening. The 100% certified fresh critical score and 98% with audiences on RT will certainly help.

We’ll have more preview grosses in Friday AM.

Tonight’s numbers are per distribution sources.