The Elizabeth Holmes documentary that Hollywood underestimated just delivered one of the most stunning box-office performances in documentary history. You Can See Everything, the secret three-year project from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim about the disgraced Theranos founder, opened to an estimated $15 million at the North American box office this weekend.
The figure, based on Sunday estimates, is the biggest opening for a documentary in more than 20 years, discounting music documentaries. The only non-music documentary to open bigger was Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, which debuted with $23.9 million in 2004. The Elizabeth Holmes documentary finished second at the weekend box office behind Paramount’s video game adaptation Street Fighter, which debuted with $31 million.
What makes the haul remarkable is the scale of the release. It played on just 855 screens in the United States. Before the weekend, it had been tracking at $7 million to $8 million. Distributor A24 said the film logged more than 2,000 sold-out screenings, and it recorded the biggest opening for any film on fewer than 1,000 screens since Borat opened to $26.5 million in 2006.
How the Elizabeth Holmes documentary was made in secret
The film was made in secret over three years. Fielder spent more than a month with the Theranos founder and her family, including her partner Billy Evans and their two young children, in her final weeks before she reported to federal prison in 2023. The film follows Holmes both in the 34 days before she began her 11-year sentence and two years into it.
The project was first revealed last month at a secretive screening at the Telluride Film Festival, and the element of surprise became part of its marketing. Fielder, the deadpan creator of The Rehearsal, appears on camera interviewing Holmes and Evans, taking the film in increasingly unexpected directions, according to critics who have seen it.
The film reportedly cost under $7 million to make and less than $10 million to market, figures that make its $15 million debut look even more impressive. A24, which is also behind hits like Backrooms and The Invite, now appears to have a serious awards contender on its hands.
The Elizabeth Holmes documentary’s audience: young, enthusiastic and record-breaking
Ticket sales were driven by a largely younger audience: more than 70 per cent of the opening weekend crowd was under 35. Like other recent youth-driven hits such as Backrooms, the film converted social media buzz into sold-out theatres, with screenings in New York and Los Angeles routinely filling despite the film’s nearly three-hour running time.
It also drew extraordinary critical and audience reception. It holds 99 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 99 on Metacritic, and Page Six reports it is currently the highest-rated film ever on Letterboxd at 4.8. In PostTrak exit polls, an unprecedented 91 per cent of audiences said they would definitely recommend the film.
For comparison, this year’s controversial Melania Trump documentary Melania opened with $7 million, considered a strong showing, and went on to gross $16 million domestically. The Elizabeth Holmes documentary nearly doubled that opening figure in a single weekend.
Why the Elizabeth Holmes documentary became an Oscar story
The Elizabeth Holmes documentary’s chief competition in the documentary race is Alex Gibney’s four-hour Elon Musk film, which has so far struggled under a far more limited release from Bleecker Street. It expanded to 472 screens this weekend, earning $290,000 for a total of $394,912, according to Page Six.
The story of Holmes’ rise and fall has already been told in books, podcasts, TV shows and other documentaries. What sets the Elizabeth Holmes documentary apart, critics say, is the unprecedented access Fielder secured and the film’s genre-bending approach. CNN called it a film that has rewritten the rules of documentaries as we know them.
As the Elizabeth Holmes documentary heads for a national release, industry watchers are asking whether it can threaten Moore’s Iraq War film as the top-grossing documentary ever. With 90 per cent of audiences so far saying they would recommend it, that once-unthinkable prospect is now a genuine talking point in Hollywood.