A nearly three-hour documentary about Elizabeth Holmes was the No. 1 movie in America over Halloween weekend. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
A24\u2019s You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, took in $11.4 million in its third weekend, narrowly edging DC Studios\u2019 Clayface, according to Monday\u2019s final figures reported by Variety<\/a>. It had finished second in each of its first two weekends, behind Street Fighter and then Clayface<\/a>. Its domestic total now stands at $64.7 million.<\/p>\n It is the first documentary outside the concert genre to top the box office since Michael Moore\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Why Halloween weekends sink the box office<\/p>\n Unlike Christmas, Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July, Halloween doesn\u2019t boost the box office when it lands on a weekend. People don\u2019t get an extra day off, and they\u2019re more likely to spend peak moviegoing hours trick-or-treating or at parties.<\/p>\n 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>.<\/p>\n A thin November slate<\/p>\n This year\u2019s quiet Halloween also foreshadows a challenging month. The biggest swing is Lionsgate\u2019s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on Nov. 20, the sixth film in the franchise and an adaptation of Suzanne Collins\u2019 2025 bestseller. Boxoffice Pro\u2019s long-range tracking<\/a> puts its opening at $55 million to $65 million; the last installment, 2023\u2019s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, opened to $44.6 million.<\/p>\n Thanksgiving week brings Disney\u2019s animated Hexed and Universal\u2019s Focker In-Law, both on Nov. 25. Focker In-Law is a greater gamble: the fourth film in the franchise that began with 2000\u2019s Meet the Parents arrives 16 years after Little Fockers, which opened to $30.8 million in 2010.<\/p>\n Warner Bros.\u2019 animated The Cat in the Hat and Searchlight\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The month\u2019s biggest launch isn\u2019t a movie<\/p>\n 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<\/a> than any previous Grand Theft Auto title.<\/p>\n Grand Theft Auto V generated $800 million<\/a> in sales in its first 24 hours in 2013 and passed $1 billion in three days, which publisher Take-Two Interactive called the fastest<\/a> any entertainment property had reached that mark. It has since sold more than 230 million units, according to Take-Two\u2019s August 2026 earnings report<\/a>.<\/p>\n