It was villain versus villain at the weekend box office, with a shape-shifting comic-book menace facing an unexpectedly formidable challenger: Elizabeth Holmes.
“Clayface,” an R-rated horror movie about a lesser-known Batman villain, was No. 1 at North American theaters. It took in about $24 million from Thursday night through Sunday, according to Rentrak, which compiles box office data. “Clayface” was inexpensive to make, at least by superhero standards. Warner Bros. and its DC Studios division spent $44 million on the film, which received mostly positive reviews.
The “Clayface” opening was modest — at the low end of prerelease analyst expectations. For DC, however, it was a relief. The studio’s “Supergirl” was a box office disaster in July, taking in $126 million worldwide against production and marketing costs of at least $270 million. (Studios typically split ticket sales 50-50 with theaters.)
Warner Bros. said “Clayface” collected an additional $19 million overseas, for a global opening total of about $43 million.
Coming in a surprisingly close second in North America was Ms. Holmes, playing herself. “You Can See Everything,” a nearly three-hour documentary about the disgraced Theranos founder, collected roughly $20 million in its second weekend, for a new domestic total of about $45 million. Demand has been so strong that A24 expanded the film to 2,655 theaters, an exceptionally wide release for a documentary and more than triple its opening-weekend footprint.
A24 spent less than $10 million to produce “You Can See Everything.” The marketing campaign, which relied heavily on internet memes, cost a similar amount.
Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, “You Can See Everything” is the highest-grossing nonmusical documentary since Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004. Reviews have been breathless, with one critic calling it “unmissable.” Oscar prognosticators are treating “You Can See Everything” as a serious contender for a best picture nomination, which would be a first for a documentary.
Greg Durkin, the founder of Enact Insight, an entertainment research firm, said in a report that “You Can See Everything” had mobilized 20-something and infrequent moviegoers by exploring “identity delusion” and “performative authenticity.” In the film, Ms. Holmes presents herself as a wide-eyed idealist whose ambitions were misunderstood, rather than a convicted fraudster who lied and lied.
“Fahrenheit 9/11” (Lionsgate) holds the box office record for a nonmusical documentary. It sold $119 million in tickets at North American theaters by the end of its run, or about $212 million after adjusting for inflation. As of Sunday, “You Can See Everything” ranked as the sixth-highest-grossing nonmusical documentary in Hollywood history, after adjusting for inflation, a whisper behind the 2012 right-wing film “2016: Obama’s America.”
For all its success, “You Can See Everything” has yet to approach the box office frenzy of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which rode a wave of anger over the Iraq war. Mr. Moore’s polemic collected $55.5 million from 1,725 theaters after its second weekend in the summer of 2004, or about $98.7 million in today’s dollars.
Rounding out the weekend’s top three was “Wildwood,” directed by Travis Knight and produced by Laika, the Oregon stop-motion animation studio founded by his father, the Nike co-founder Phil Knight. “Wildwood,” about a teenage girl who searches an enchanted forest for her kidnapped brother, debuted to about $11 million, comfortably above prerelease analyst expectations. But the film, which received rave reviews, was expensive to make. It cost about $100 million, not including marketing.
In semi-limited release, the romantic fable “Wicker,” starring Olivia Colman as a lonely fisherwoman who commissions a basket maker to create her a husband (Alexander Skarsgard), took in a solid $6 million for Black Bear, a film company founded by Teddy Schwarzman, son of the billionaire financier Stephen A. Schwarzman.
The Spanish-language film “La Bola Negra,” which Netflix acquired at the Cannes Film Festival, expanded to nine theaters in its second weekend and generated about $245,000 in ticket sales, for a new total of $650,104. Netflix is giving the well-reviewed “La Bola Negra” an exclusive 45-day theatrical run, the longest such window in the streaming giant’s history.
Dead on arrival was “Klara and the Sun,” a science-fiction drama about an artificial intelligence companion purchased to comfort a sickly teenage girl. Starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams and directed by Taika Waititi, the $20 million movie collected $725,000 from 880 theaters for Sony Pictures Entertainment and Spyglass Media Group.
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