Interest in Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos fraud scandal has skyrocketed amid buzz for You Can See Everything, the record-breaking documentary on the disgraced former CEO.
Viewership for The Dropout, the ۲۰۲۲ Hulu series starring Amanda Seyfried as Holmes, surged by ۱۸۶% in September compared with the month prior, according to Variety, following the announcement on ۶ September of the previously secret film’s first teaser.
Viewership nearly doubled again during the week of ۱۲ October, increasing ۹۲% over the week prior in the days before the film’s ۱۶ October premiere.
Additionally, Bad Blood, the ۲۰۱۸ book by journalist John Carreyrou detailing the inner workings of Holmes’s fraudulent empire and the whistleblowers who exposed her, returned to the New York Times bestseller list.
Holmes, at one point the youngest female self-made billionaire in the US with a net worth $۴.۵bn by the time she was ۳۰, left the company in ۲۰۱۸, after Carreyrou’s reporting revealed that she and others knew that Theranos devices could not accurately test blood samples. The company collapsed shortly afterward.
The three-hour film, produced by A۲۴ and directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, opened to an extraordinary $۱۵m (A$۲۱.۵m, £۱۱.۲m) in North America on just ۸۵۵ screens – the best opening weekend for documentary in more than two decades, since Fahrenheit ۹/۱۱, in ۲۰۰۴, as well as the best opening for a film playing on fewer than ۱,۰۰۰ screens since Borat opened to $۲۶.۵m, in ۲۰۰۶. There were reportedly ۲,۰۰۰ sold-out screenings over the weekend.
The film also pushed the weekend’s champion, video game adaptation Street Fighter, to second place on Monday’s box office chart.
Filmed largely in secret in ۲۰۲۳, in the month before Holmes submitted to prison for an ۱۱-year sentence for fraud, You Can See Everything has played to sold-out showings on the strength of spoiler-averse word of mouth and near-unanimous rave reviews. It holds a rare close-to-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes and a record-breaking ۹۹ on Metacritic, and is among the highest-rated films all time on Letterboxd. In a five-star review, the Guardian called it “a stupefying and gloriously destabilizing hall of psychological mirrors, a thrilling once-in-a-lifetime collision of director and subject”.
Pundits are also predicting that the film could become the first documentary ever nominated for an Oscar for best picture. Additionally, due to the film’s twisty second half – minor spoilers ahead – A۲۴ will submit You Can See Everything for consideration for cinematography, score, director, costume design, production design, and makeup and hairstyling on top of best documentary.
Variety also confirmed on Tuesday that Amanda Seyfried will be campaigned for best supporting actress.
You Can See Everything will expand to at least ۲,۶۰۰ screens on its second domestic weekend, with many industry eyes on its box office rise. It will premiere in Australia on ۱۲ November and in the UK on ۲۰ November.
