The US weekend box office has delivered an unexpected result. While the Street Fighter reboot takes the top spot, it is a documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes that is capturing all the attention by marking one of the most surprising debuts of the year.
The phenomenon is significant because it breaks several industry trends: it demonstrates that a documentary over three hours long can compete at the box office with a blockbuster, and it also confirms Netflix's entry into the traditional theatrical release model, something it had avoided until now.
Street Fighter wins but fails to impress
The return of the Capcom fighting video game to the big screen debuts with $31 million in the United States, a figure at the low end of the forecasts managed by Paramount.
The reception, both from the public and specialized critics, has been lukewarm. Adding the international market, the film reaches about $51 million worldwide, an amount that should allow it to recover its $82 million production budget in the coming weeks.
The reactions received are reminiscent, as has been noted, of those that Street Fighter, the 1994 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, had at the time.
You Can See Everything, the documentary that makes history
The real headline of the weekend belongs to You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Despite being released in only 855 theaters, being a documentary, and lasting more than three hours (174 minutes), the film achieved second place with $15 million in revenue.
It is the best opening for a film distributed in fewer than 1,000 theaters since 2006, and the best start for a documentary since Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9, released in 2004. The figure also doubles the $7 million achieved this year by the documentary Melania, which focused on the US First Lady.
The interest generated has been such that numerous theaters have sold out, which raises the possibility that the revenue will increase in its second week, something unusual in the commercial circuit.
For A24, the film's production and distribution company, the result clearly exceeds initial expectations. The film, with a budget of $7 million, would have already become profitable after its first weekend in theaters.
Elizabeth Holmes, involuntary protagonist
You Can See Everything was filmed in secret over three years and follows Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, in the month before she entered prison to serve an eleven-year sentence for fraud. Holmes was the founder of Theranos, the company that claimed to have developed a device capable of performing blood tests with a single drop, technology that was later proven to be fraudulent.
Holmes' story had already reached television through the miniseries The Dropout, where Amanda Seyfried played the businesswoman. As explained, Holmes gave unrestricted access to her private life to the two directors during the month before she entered prison, and during that time, as well as in subsequent conversations, aspects of the couple's relationship were revealed, marked by the control Evans exerts over the life of Holmes, who continues to deny having lied consciously and remains interested in developing a blood testing device.
The rest of the top 5: Chastain holds on and Disney stumbles again
In third place remains The Other Mother, starring Jessica Chastain, despite a 70% drop from its debut. The film, which received unfavorable reviews, has already accumulated more than $78 million worldwide.
Fourth place goes to Whalefall, another stumble for Disney under the 20th Century Studios label. The action film starring Austin Abrams grossed only $8 million against a $60 million budget, and barely adds $17.5 million worldwide, which seriously complicates its chances of profitability in theaters.
Closing the top 5 is a new remake of Sense and Sensibility, with $7.2 million in the United States, rising to $18.5 million including the international market. With a budget close to $25 million, its profitability is much more accessible.
Jailer 2 sneaks into the top ten
The second half of the top 10 is dominated by well-known titles. Verity, Resident Evil, and In the Heart of the Beast occupy the sixth, seventh, and eighth positions, with $6.2, $5.5, and $4.8 million respectively. Resident Evil has the best cumulative total, with $148.4 million in the United States and $361 million internationally.
The ninth place is occupied by Jailer 2, an Indian production that achieved $3.2 million despite being released in only 420 theaters, a new sign of the strength of the Indian community in the US market.
The top 10 is closed by The Forgotten Island, in its fourth week in theaters, with $2.2 million, bringing its total US revenue to $35.1 million. Worldwide, the animated film reaches $60.3 million.
La bola negra and Netflix’s change of strategy
Further down the rankings, in 21st place, appears La bola negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. The film debuted this week in the United States, opening in only 4 theaters, where it grossed $277,500, an average of $69,375 per screen.
The figure represents the second-best per-screen opening for a non-English language film, only behind Parasite, although it should be taken with caution due to the small number of theaters used.
What is truly significant is that it marks a change in strategy for Netflix. Until now, the platform released films in theaters in a testimonial manner, mainly to meet the requirements of some film awards, and avoided offering official box office data.
With La bola negra, Netflix has provided official revenue figures for the first time. In addition, the film will have 47 days of theatrical exhibition before arriving on the platform in the United States, scheduled for December 2. As indicated, this could be the first of several films to follow this new model.
