Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes Doc Hits Box Office Heights

Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary, You Can See Everything, has evolved into an unexpected box office powerhouse this autumn. The three-hour feature, which offers a deep, often surreal look into the life of disgraced med-tech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, is currently performing like a blockbuster. During its second weekend, the film experienced a 25% surge, pulling in an additional $19.5 million. With total North American earnings now surpassing $45 million, the documentary has secured its place as one of A24’s most successful releases ever. It’s typically to take someone else who hasn’t yet seen it, at least in part hoping to witness their reaction to a piece of art that excited or moved me in some way, w hen I see a film a second time during its theatrical run. Peering into (and helping to create) a hall of mirrors around the famed med-tech scammer Elizabeth Holmes, has become the box office story of the fall, actually rising 25% on its second weekend to gross another $19.5m – a rare feat even given its expanded screen count, this documentary. According to most of the twentysomethings I spoke with had some combination of familiarity with Fielder’s more overtly comic work – one woman, This seemed “on brand” for him – and awareness of the notoriety of Holmes, the latter. Each seemed to provide a surprise hook for a big-screen feature – like a more thoughtful version of seeing a movie because it has Anne Hathaway or Spider-Man (not that there’s anything wrong with following either of those into the dark). Was this effectively serving as a three-hour crossover between The Dropout and The Rehearsal. With the WTF nature of that idea intact, there was a sense that this unexpected team-up was part of the sell. According to remarkably, though the movie had been out for over a week and already discoursed at least halfway to death online, none of these twentysomething viewers, Having any idea about the unexpected pivot the movie made at its halfway mark – especially impressive given that it involves another marquee name added to the mix. Yet if this moment primed the audience for peals of cringe-comedy laughter or outright derision toward either Fielder’s affect or Holmes’s refusal to accept responsibility for her deception, that’s not exactly how the movie played out. Applause when the movie threw to its end credits was scattered and uncertain, though the disparaging of Evans got an enthusiastically cathartic reaction.

Industry analysts suggest the film is on track to rank among the highest-grossing nonfiction features in history. Some projections indicate it could even reach the $100 million mark in North America—a milestone previously achieved by only one other documentary, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Despite being announced only eight weeks before its release, the film is already outperforming high-profile new features and has surpassed the commercial success of the A24 release Primetime, which featured major star Robert Pattinson. Almost everyone I knew had seen it already; all I could do was observe strangers, perhaps more to the point. It’s probably even more surprising that a three-hour documentary whose existence was only announced about eight weeks ago is on track to make more money than high-profile new releases like Practical Magic 2, Verity and Street Fighter, among others, if You Can See Everything isn’t quite an Obsession -level cash cow. Something only ever accomplished by one other documentary: Michael Moore’s hot-button Fahrenheit 9/11, which had the advantage of election-year currency an, this could carry the movie past the $100m mark in North America. Either; no one cited a recent documentary they had seen in theaters, saying they were more likely to catch that sort of thing on streaming, if at all, hardly anyone claimed to be a documentary aficionado.

The film’s rise has been fueled largely by intense social media buzz. During a recent sold-out screening at the AMC Empire in New York’s Times Square, the audience consisted primarily of viewers under 30. Many attendees noted that they were drawn to the theater by viral clips on Instagram and TikTok, which framed the movie as a distinct cultural moment. Viewers frequently described the project as “unlike anything else” currently in cinemas, noting that it required a firsthand experience to fully grasp. And outsized audience reactions to go along with it; rewatching it in a full 300-seat auditorium offered the opportunity to re-experience that sense of discovery, this is a movie garnering a surprisingly sizable audience. Despite an obviously youthful demographic – perhaps owing to the high tolerance for hustle and/or bustle required to trek out to Times Square, I couldn’t find anyone over 30 – there were several viewers who hadn’t been to the movies in months. (The answer to the question of what movie they last saw in theaters ranged from the month-old Primetime to the obligatory summer mega-blockbuster The Odyssey to, yes. According to the 23-year-old sitting next to me, She got the impression from social media – specifically, clips on Instagram and TikTok – that this was “a cultural moment”, as she put it.

While Fielder is known for his idiosyncratic comedic style, audiences found this project to be fittingly “on brand.” The documentary creates a complex, hall-of-mirrors effect around its subject, with viewers reporting a range of reactions, from genuine sympathy for Holmes to a state of “admiring confusion.” The film also introduces a mystery guest whose presence appeared to gain traction with the audience in real-time, receiving spontaneous applause for labeling Holmes’s partner, Billy Evans, as “batshit crazy.” This one felt more unpredictable in its alternating waves of laughter and murmuring discomfort, but while early screenings had been described as meeting with rapturous audience engagement driven by the film’s surprises.

Common reactions among the youthful crowd included both amusement and uncertainty about how to interpret the unfolding narrative. Fielder’s deadpan delivery—notably the line “that must be hard”—consistently prompted some of the biggest laughs in the theater. Despite the length and the unconventional subject matter, the film has managed to draw in people who rarely visit cinemas, turning the theater into a space for communal discovery.

As the film continues its theatrical run, the success of You Can See Everything raises questions about contemporary audience preferences. Whether this represents a broader willingness to engage with complex, three-hour nonfiction narratives or remains a singular phenomenon, the movie has undeniably established itself as the standout cinematic story of the year. In a landscape often dominated by franchise tentpoles, Fielder’s unflinching look at Elizabeth Holmes—and the timely portrayal of her partner—has proven that a documentary can still capture the collective imagination of the public. It’s Elizabeth Holmes’s partner who makes for 2026’s timeliest villain, in You Can See Everything. Early in the film, Holmes gets teary talking about the potential separation from her children as she prepares to leave for her prison sentence in a few weeks.