In a year that has already seen box office surprises with Obsession and Backrooms, 2026 decided there was room for one more. Over the weekend, A24 released the documentary feature You Can See Everything in 855 theaters and made it an instant success story. With its $15.6 million debut, You Can See Everything recorded the second-best opening for a documentary at the box office behind 2024’s Fahrenheit 9/11 ($23.9 million) and scored the best opening for a film in under 1,000 locations since Borat in 2006 ($26.4 million). There have been reports of sellouts at various locations and lines that have been wrapped around the block, and that’s due to a winning strategy employed by A24. The indie studio knew they had something special with You Can See Everything, and by beginning with a rollout in under 1,000 theaters, they could claim a stellar per-theater average ($18,247) and gauge the demand to expand the documentary in the coming weeks. Given the reception so far, You Can See Everything isn’t done with claiming more potential records.
Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, You Can See Everything follows the founder of the now-defunct healthy technology company Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, and her partner, Billy Evans, thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison. What begins as a standard and intimate look into their lives before Holmes begins serving her term at a United States federal prison for defrauding investors turns into a much more surreal odyssey that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. It’s a three-hour endeavor that feels like it would be a tough sell for the mainstream, but A24 has always had its pulse on what people want and has become masters of guerrilla marketing that speaks to audiences across generations.
A24 Scored With The Element of Surprise
Less than two months ago, the general public was unaware that a documentary following Holmes was being concocted by Fielder and Oppenheim. It all began in 2023 when Holmes and her partner Evans invited a film crew to live at home with them and their children during the 34 days leading up to her beginning her prison sentence. They were able to keep it under wraps and even convinced A24 to, should the idea not work, trash the documentary altogether. The studio was willing to do this, likely believing that potential success was worth the risk. The unconventional strategy would carry over into how they premiered the film during a secret screening.
On Sep. 6, You Can See Everything premiered at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival as a secret screening, and those in attendance were unaware of what they would be seeing. They were told they had to surrender their cell phones to prevent potential leaks, which only added to the mystery of the project they were about to see. On the same day as the screening, A24 released the teaser trailer for the film, and suddenly the secret project turned into the perfect storm of universal praise and expert marketing from an indie studio that has never followed traditional means for promoting their projects.
With the response from the surprise screening and the teaser trailer, A24 was able to trickle out information about the documentary to the general public. The response to its unveiling and what it turned out to be about didn’t just reach a niche audience; it gained the attention of casual moviegoers who have been fascinated by Holmes and the fallout from her involvement with Theranos. Leading up to the film’s opening weekend, the documentary sat at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (now at 98 percent), which showed that You Can See Everything wasn’t just a cheap gimmick. It was the real deal.
Gen Z Proves Once Again To Be Crucial To Box Office
Oppenheim had success with the Gen Z audience just last month with Primetime, a film starring Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen. Their interest fueled that film’s opening weekend to $18.8 million, as 69 percent of the audience during its debut was under the age of 30, leading to the third-largest 3-day opening in A24’s history. When that film hit with the Gen Z crowd, many believed it would happen with You Can See Everything and that’s exactly what transpired.
You Can See Everything’s opening weekend spoke to Gen Z in a big way, with 70 percent of the audience under 35. We’ve said time and time again that the Gen Z audience wants something of substance to consume and they’re not just into check your brain at the door entertainment. You Can See Everything tapped into their interests by tackling subject matter that has remained relevant (the Hulu 2022 miniseries The Dropout starring Amanda Seyfried helped with that), and A24’s secret marketing strategy also appealed to their sensibilities. If A24 is previewing the documentary shrouded in secrecy, it must be something good. The drop of the trailer soon led to various memes poking fun at the first look, and it should come as no surprise that Gen Z is a big proponent of meme culture. Tagging Holmes in the trailer drop was also a nice touch because it came complete with a comment from the imprisoned subject of the doc (to be clear, her partner Evans reportedly runs he social media).
Beyond the pre-release hype, You Can See Everything continued to speak to the Gen Z crowd through social media. Reports of sellouts and lines wrapped around the block to see the documentary began to emerge, and that was eventually aligned with the news that the film became the highest-rated in Letterboxd’s history at 4.8. Throw in reports of a mystery actor in the doc being eligible for Academy Award consideration, alongside other major awards it could compete in, and numerous posts about seeing Evans in his full glory while in the shower, and the marketing for You Can See Everything was now out of the hands of A24 and in the hands of the audience they were wise to cater to.
The Mystery Behind Elizabeth Holmes Continues To Captivate
Credit has to go to Holmes herself for the interest in You Can See Everything because she remains sort of an enigma. Despite landing in federal prison for over 11 years for defrauding investors, she’s been able to maintain a grip on some of the public. Did she lie? Did she knowingly deceive investors and patients? Is she a pathological liar to her core? Because her story began with this girlboss narrative after Theranos was founded in 2003, leading to Forbes naming her the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the United States once her company claimed to have had revolutionzed blood testing, there is a pocket of the public that may want to believe that she herself was a victim of shady business practices and the things she simply didn’t know.
The documentary toys with this a lot. Sometimes framing Holmes in a sympathetic light, where her truth seems palpable and undeniable. The other ace up its sleeve is that it also makes you doubt her in equal measure. Her sometimes creepily wide-eyed stare almost seems like a parlor trick to hypnotize you into submission. Also, given the documentary’s narrative of blurring the lines between reality and fiction, you’re still left wondering how much of what you’re seeing about Holmes is true and how much of it is a lie. This sparks debate amongst audiences in the same way Obsession did about relationships, female autonomy, and consent. Those debates propelled Obsession to $263.4 million at the domestic box office and $522.8 million worldwide. It’s clear that something similar is already happening with You Can See Everything.
Then there is Holmes’ partner, Billy Evans, himself. The hotel heir with whom she has had two children has become a focal point of audience interest, as they have made him the film’s central villain. Throughout the documentary, he seems to have Svengali-like control as he tries to dictate the project’s narrative, and there are other reveals in the doc that won’t be revealed here that suggest much of this is indeed a business for Evans. In many ways, Holmes’ role as an antagonist because of her wrongdoings almost becomes an afterthought once more of Evans’ behavior and personality is revealed. Their relationship alone has made You Can See Everything a topic of conversation.
Gradual Expansion Could Lead To Explosive Box Office Results
A24 was smart to open You Can See Everything in a limited number of theaters because it showed the indie studio that interest was high and that expansion would prove to be lucrative. With news of the documentary potentially being eligible for major awards consideration, including Best Director and Best Picture at the Academy Awards, You Can See Everything has only added to its arsenal of reasons why it’s a must-see in theaters.
Some box office analysts believe, depending on how much it’s expanded this weekend, it has a strong shot at challenging DC Studios’ Clayface for the top spot, which is tracking to open between $25-35 million ahead of its review embargo being lifted. If reviews for Clayface land more on the mixed side, You Can See Everything will likely become the movie to watch this weekend and could lead to massive box office results that will continue to keep it in the conversation.
Sony Worldwide Acquisitions saw the potential for a windfall on the wall as they smartly acquired the rights in various international markets for both You Can See Everything and Primetime. They’ve secured the rights for You Can See Everything in Germany and Austria, Latin America, Scandinavia, Greece, the Middle East, Israel, India, South Africa, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, proving that they believe the doc’s reach will expand beyond the U.S. and pull in significant numbers overseas. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has worked with A24 in the past, resulting in the $70 million international gross for Materialists, which led to the film grossing over $100 million worldwide. If that can happen for a rom-com/drama starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans, the sky is the limit for You Can See Everything, which already has audiences in a chokehold.
You Can See Everything is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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