Street Fighter takes $30 million weekend as Holmes documentary stuns in second
Paramount's Street Fighter won the box office with $30 million in domestic ticket sales, meaning the United States and Canada, for 16-18 October, according to studio estimates reported by Variety.
The video game adaptation played in 3,575 venues. It was directed by Kitao Sakurai and stars Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji. Figures reported on 18 October are studio estimates until Monday's actuals.
The opening landed just under pre-weekend forecasts. Tracking had pointed to $31 million domestically for the weekend, as reported by Deadline, after earlier expectations of a $70 million global start, according to Deadline. Overseas, the film earned $20.1 million for a global opening of $51.1 million, Variety reported.
Legendary and Capcom co-financed the film for $82 million with Paramount handling distribution. That structure puts the opening weekend below the production budget before marketing costs, leaving the hold in the next weekends to decide its run.
Second place went to a surprise. A24's You Can See Everything earned $15 million from just 855 theatres, studio estimates reported by Variety show. That is a huge result on so few screens. A24 reported more than 2,000 sold-out screenings over the weekend, with around 70% of the crowd under 35 years old.
The film is a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood-testing company Theranos, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. It was directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim and had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival. A24 made it in secret over three years for roughly $7 million.
The result doubled early expectations. Heading into the weekend, projections were $7 million to $8 million, with later forecasts rising to $12 million, according to Variety and Deadline. It is the second-best opening weekend for a documentary and the biggest in more than 20 years since 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11, which opened to $24 million from 868 theatres. It is also the largest debut for any film on under 1,000 screens since 2006's Borat, which opened to $26 million from 837 theatres.
What makes this stand out is the arithmetic. One winner played wide. The other played narrow and still filled houses. Both will now face the weekday test.
