Halloween usually belongs to horror at the movies. This year, a three-hour documentary is giving a DC monster a real fight. Friday estimates show A24’s “You Can See Everything” and Warner Bros./DC’s “Clayface” neck and neck for the top spot at the domestic box office over the October 30 to November 1 weekend, with each film eyeing more than $10 million.
Here is how the weekend is shaping up, according to Deadline, plus why the holiday is bad news for ticket sales.
The race for No. 1
Deadline’s Friday afternoon update had “You Can See Everything,” the Elizabeth Holmes documentary from Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder, at about $3.2 million for Friday on its way to a third weekend of $10 million to $11 million. That would bring its running total to about $63.7 million by Sunday on the high end.
“Clayface,” directed by James Watkins, was close behind with an estimated $3.1 million on Friday and a $10 million-plus second weekend, for a running total of about $43.7 million.
Deadline said the odds favoured the documentary, which has been fuelled by social media memes and the popularity of Elizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder as Halloween costumes.
A documentary breaking records
The success of “You Can See Everything” is unusual for its genre. According to Deadline, the film has already passed the domestic totals of several famous documentaries, including Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine,” Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Hubble 3D.” Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” remains the highest-grossing non-nature, non-concert documentary, with $119.1 million domestic.
The rest of the top five
Deadline’s projections for the rest of the chart:
- Laika’s stop-motion “Wildwood,” released through Fathom, with about $2.1 million on Friday and a second weekend of about $6.8 million, for a running total of $25.1 million.
- Black Bear’s R-rated comedy “Wicker,” expanding to about 2,374 theaters, with roughly $3.5 million for its second weekend and $12.7 million in total.
- Paramount and Legendary’s “Street Fighter,” with about $3.3 million in its third weekend and $53.1 million in total.
Why Halloween is tough for theaters
When Halloween lands on a weekend, moviegoing tends to suffer as people head to parties and trick-or-treating instead. Deadline noted that last year, when the holiday fell on a Friday, all films combined grossed $57.3 million over the weekend, the fifth-lowest weekend of 2025. The last time Halloween fell on a Saturday outside the pandemic year was 2015, when “The Martian” led with $11.7 million.
Rain forecast in Los Angeles on Saturday is another wild card, Deadline added. On the flip side, families can still catch Saturday matinees before the evening festivities.
Light on new releases
Major studios largely avoided opening wide releases this weekend. The most notable new arrival is “Christmas at the Kringles,” an indie holiday slasher from Briarcliff Entertainment starring Ron Livingston, Rob Riggle, Rachel Bilson and Tom Lennon, opening at 1,825 theaters. Deadline reported it earned $200,000 in previews and is expected to make a low single-digit millions total for the weekend. “Joshua Live!” and the Liam Neeson and Marisa Tomei action film “The Mongoose” also open in limited numbers of theaters.
What it means for the rest of the year
The strong run for a documentary is a welcome surprise for theaters, which rely on a mix of films to fill screens between big releases. Deadline also noted that Laika’s “Wildwood” has already passed the lifetime domestic total of the studio’s previous film, a good sign for original animation heading into the holidays.
The takeaway
This is a quiet weekend at the multiplex, but it has a fun storyline: a documentary about a convicted tech founder going toe to toe with a shape-shifting Batman villain. Final numbers arrive Sunday and Monday, and the bigger test for theaters comes later in November, when the holiday blockbusters arrive.
Image: Movie theater seats (Unsplash) by Elijah Flores baesik via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0
