A nearly three-hour documentary about Elizabeth Holmes was the No. 1 movie in America over Halloween weekend. That’s a triumph for A24, and a scary harbinger for theaters heading into a thin November that faces competition from an entirely different corner of entertainment.
A24’s You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, took in $11.4 million in its third weekend, narrowly edging DC Studios’ Clayface, according to Monday’s final figures reported by Variety. It had finished second in each of its first two weekends, behind Street Fighter and then Clayface. Its domestic total now stands at $64.7 million.
It is the first documentary outside the concert genre to top the box office since Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. But its lack of direct competition is telling. No studio opened a wide release, and overall ticket sales came to about $56 million, down more than 40% from the prior weekend and the second-lowest total of the year, according to studio estimates.
Why Halloween weekends sink the box office
Unlike Christmas, Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July, Halloween doesn’t boost the box office when it lands on a weekend. People don’t get an extra day off, and they’re more likely to spend peak moviegoing hours trick-or-treating or at parties.
The last Saturday Halloween, in 2020, came while most theaters were shuttered. The one before that, in 2015, was the weakest weekend of that year to that point: three new wide releases flopped, and The Martian stayed on top in its fifth week, as Fortune reported.
A thin November slate
This year’s quiet Halloween also foreshadows a challenging month. The biggest swing is Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on Nov. 20, the sixth film in the franchise and an adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ 2025 bestseller. Boxoffice Pro’s long-range tracking puts its opening at $55 million to $65 million; the last installment, 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, opened to $44.6 million.
Thanksgiving week brings Disney’s animated Hexed and Universal’s Focker In-Law, both on Nov. 25. Focker In-Law is a greater gamble: the fourth film in the franchise that began with 2000’s Meet the Parents arrives 16 years after Little Fockers, which opened to $30.8 million in 2010.
Warner Bros.’ animated The Cat in the Hat and Searchlight’s Wild Horse Nine open Nov. 6, and smaller titles like Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol and I Play Rocky are sprinkled through the month. But the box office’s most likely competition comes from the video game business: Rockstar Games releases Grand Theft Auto VI on Nov. 19, one day before Sunrise on the Reaping opens.
The month’s biggest launch isn’t a movie
The sixth game in the series arrives 13 years after Grand Theft Auto V, and anticipation has been building for years. Rockstar confirmed development in February 2022; that September, a hack leaked roughly 90 clips of early footage, and in December 2023 the first trailer leaked hours before its scheduled debut. The game promises a more expansive setting than any previous Grand Theft Auto title.
Grand Theft Auto V generated $800 million in sales in its first 24 hours in 2013 and passed $1 billion in three days, which publisher Take-Two Interactive called the fastest any entertainment property had reached that mark. It has since sold more than 230 million units, according to Take-Two’s August 2026 earnings report.
GTA VI is poised to beat those numbers. Analytics firm Sensor Tower estimates it had drawn 6.45 million digital pre-orders worth about $630 million as of Oct. 20, excluding physical copies. That global, pre-launch haul already tops the roughly $625 million domestic run of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the year’s second-highest-grossing film behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
It is also more than 11 times what every movie in North American theaters grossed over Halloween weekend. For Take-Two, which reported $6.66 billion in revenue in its fiscal year ended in March, the launch underpins a forecast of $8 billion to $8.2 billion in net bookings this fiscal year.
Video games may draw a narrower audience than theatrical films, but a release this size is bound to occupy the attention of millions later this month. That’s likely to pull some of them away from the big screen for at least a weekend, leaving a notable dent in the fall box office.
The documentary « You Can See Everything, » focusing on Elizabeth Holmes, emerged as the top film in the U.S. box office during the Halloween weekend, marking a significant achievement for A24. Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the nearly three-hour film grossed $11.4 million in its third weekend, surpassing DC Studios’ « Clayface. » This success is particularly notable as it is the first documentary outside the concert genre to lead the box office since Michael Moore’s « Fahrenheit 9/11 » in 2004. However, its success also reflects a lack of direct competition, with no major new releases from other studios and overall ticket sales plummeting by over 40% from the previous weekend, resulting in the second-lowest total of the year.
Halloween traditionally does not boost box office numbers like other holidays, as it does not provide an extra day off for moviegoers. Instead, people often spend the evening trick-or-treating or attending social events, which detracts from movie attendance. Historical patterns indicate that Halloween weekends can be particularly weak for box office performance, with previous Halloween weekends showing similarly low results.
Looking ahead, the upcoming month of November presents a sparse slate for theaters. The most anticipated release is Lionsgate’s « The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, » set to debut on November 20. This sixth installment in the franchise is based on Suzanne Collins’ upcoming 2025 bestseller, with Boxoffice Pro projecting an opening weekend of $55 million to $65 million. However, this is tempered by the fact that the previous installment, « The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, » had a modest opening of $44.6 million.
Additionally, Thanksgiving week features releases from Disney and Universal, including the animated film « Hexed » and « Focker In-Law, » the latter being a sequel that arrives 16 years after its predecessor, « Little Fockers, » which grossed $30.8 million upon its release. Other smaller films are scheduled throughout the month, but the primary competition for the box office may stem from the video game industry.
The highly anticipated release of « Grand Theft Auto VI » on November 19, just one day before the new « Hunger Games » movie, is expected to draw significant attention away from theaters. This game, developed by Rockstar Games, is the sixth in the Grand Theft Auto series and comes 13 years after the previous title, « Grand Theft Auto V. » There has been extensive anticipation for the game, with reports of 6.45 million digital pre-orders amounting to approximately $630 million by mid-October, excluding physical copies. This pre-launch figure already exceeds the total domestic gross of many films released in theaters over the Halloween weekend.
« Grand Theft Auto V » previously set records with $800 million in sales within its first 24 hours and surpassed $1 billion in sales within three days, a record for any entertainment property at the time. The sequel is poised to surpass those figures, and its release is expected to significantly impact box office performance in November, as many potential moviegoers may choose to engage with the game instead.
In summary, while A24’s documentary has achieved remarkable success as a box office leader, the overall landscape for theaters looks challenging heading into November, compounded by a thin release schedule and formidable competition from the video game sector, particularly with the launch of « Grand Theft Auto VI. » This situation suggests that the fall box office may face considerable challenges as audiences gravitate towards other forms of entertainment.
