UK cinemas are reporting exceptional advance demand for You Can See Everything, the documentary about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, with multiple venues already adding extra screenings a month before its UK release. The Guardian reports that the film pulled in US$15m (£11.3m) on its opening weekend in the United States, the biggest opening for a documentary in more than 20 years.
Clare Binns, creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, said the excitement reminded her of the response to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in 2023. ‘People are hungry in a way that we haven’t really seen since then,’ she said. ‘And for it to be a three-hour documentary, it’s bonkers.’
Screenings selling out across London and beyond
Picturehouse Central in London began selling tickets for the film before its US debut, ahead of the 20 November UK opening date. Demand was such that the Ritzy in Brixton found its first allocated screen nearly full, leading the venue to release seats for a second showing. Cineworld has also seen strong take-up: Stuart Crane, its international vice-president of content, said ‘the speed and scale of demand has been remarkable’. Initial screenings at Cineworld Leicester Square sold out when tickets first went on sale at around 40 cinemas, and the chain has since added further screenings at Leicester Square and expanded bookings to an additional 35 cinemas nationwide.
Vue reported a similar picture. Dean Cross, its senior screen content manager, said it was ‘seeing incredible buzz both within the industry and amongst cinemagoers’, adding that it was ‘particularly encouraging to see a documentary capturing the attention of younger audiences’. More than 70% of the film’s US opening-weekend audience was under 35, and 855 cinemas saw upwards of 2,000 screenings sell out across the opening weekend.
How the film built its following
Momentum behind the film gathered pace after it was unveiled at a private screening during the Telluride film festival in Colorado in September, at which attendees were required to surrender their phones. A teaser trailer dropped the same day and spread rapidly online, with Holmes herself joining the conversation by responding to posts about the film. Co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the documentary has received widespread critical praise; The Guardian called it ‘a modern masterpiece of deceit’, citing its exploration of Holmes and the blurred boundaries between documentary and performance.
Binns pointed to broader shifts in cinema-going behaviour as context for the response. ‘People want to enjoy films in a cinema with other people,’ she said. ‘The younger demographic want shared experiences. They want to talk about it with their friends, and you can’t do that when you’re sitting on your own watching a TV.’ She also drew attention to the specific pull of Fielder’s access to Holmes: ‘I think the fact that Nathan Fielder spent a month with Elizabeth Holmes is a huge draw. He’s a smart guy, and audiences want something they can relate to.’
You Can See Everything opens in UK cinemas on 20 November.