Culture 3 min read By Morgan Griffin
Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary tops box office for second weekend
A24’s documentary «You Can See Everything» grossed $19.5 million in its second weekend, a rise from its opening, and is on track to become one of the most successful documentaries of the century.
A24’s documentary «You Can See Everything» has held strong at the box office, collecting $19.5 million from 2,655 theaters in its second weekend. That figure represents a notable increase over its opening, and the film has now grossed $45.1 million domestically to date. The documentary, which follows filmmaker Nathan Fielder as he spends weeks with Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, has become one of the surprise hits of the fall season.
The film was unveiled last month at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival and opened in US cinemas on October 16. It follows Fielder after he moves in with Holmes in the weeks leading up to her imprisonment for fraud in 2023. Holmes founded the medical company Theranos in 2003, and in the early 2010s the company claimed to have revolutionized blood testing. In 2015, Holmes was reported to be the youngest self-made female billionaire in the United States, and the same year Theranos was accused of deceiving the public about its blood testing claims.
In 2023, Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Along with the company’s former chief operating officer Ramesh «Sunny» Balwani, she was also ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of the fraud. The documentary’s backdrop is therefore one of the most widely covered corporate fraud cases of the past decade, which has helped drive public interest.
The film’s momentum has built steadily. The first trailer spread widely across social media, with many viewers comparing it to a living horror. The documentary took $5.5 million on its first day and $15.6 million across its opening weekend against a budget of $7 million. This past weekend it posted a 25 percent increase in box office sales and is on track to become the most successful non-musical documentary of this century. That record is currently held by Michael Moore’s 2004 film «Fahrenheit 9/11», which grossed more than $220 million.
The film also reaches UK cinemas next month, on November 20, and tickets for early screenings are already selling out. Clare Binn of Picturehouse Cinema told The Guardian that audiences are eager for material that speaks to them differently than studios have in the past, adding that the film’s three-hour running time is part of its appeal. She pointed to Fielder’s month spent with Holmes as a major draw, noting that audiences want stories they can relate to.
Fielder has described his own perspective on the project. In an interview with W Magazine, he said that he believed Holmes was guilty, but that he was interested in her and her situation. «Curiosity drove me», he said, adding that he had always tried to find the truth in any situation, even when a great deal of artifice is involved. He said that meeting Holmes changed his expectations, describing her as disarming in real life, and that he told her he believed what he had read about her, which did not seem to frighten her.
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