Clayface Tops the Box Office With $10.4 Million Friday, Eyes $24M Weekend

Clayface is the No. 1 movie in America, after DC Studios' body horror spinoff made $10.4 million on Friday and beat A24's You Can See Everything to the top spot (Variety). It's now on track for a $24 million opening weekend from 3,458 theaters (TheWrap).

That's a solid follow-up to the $3.5 million it made in Thursday previews, which we covered here, and it lands right in the $20 million to $25 million range that tracking pointed to before the weekend.

How are audiences reacting to Clayface?

So far, the people buying tickets seem to like what they're seeing. Clayface earned an A- CinemaScore, which is a strong grade for any movie and a great one for horror (horror movies usually score lower on CinemaScore). On Rotten Tomatoes, it sits at 76% with critics and 93% with audiences (TheWrap).

That kind of word of mouth matters for a smaller DC movie without a big hero in the title, since strong reactions from the people who see it could help it hold up next weekend.

Is You Can See Everything still in the race?

Yes, and A24's hit is making this a real fight. You Can See Everything expanded from 855 theaters to 2,655 in its second weekend and made $6.14 million on Friday (Variety). It's on pace for about $20 million this weekend, up 28% from its opening, and a running total around $45 million.

Movies rarely grow in their second weekend, so that jump is impressive, and while most of it comes from the expansion, it also suggests word of mouth is working in its favor.

How did Wildwood open?

LAIKA's stop-motion movie Wildwood made $4.3 million on its opening day (DiscussingFilm). That's a quieter start for the studio behind Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, and it'll likely lean on families over the next few weekends to build its total.

What does this mean for DC?

My read is that this is a good result for DC Studios. Clayface was always going to be a test of whether a weird, R-rated side story could work, and a No. 1 opening with strong scores says it can. If the weekend lands near $24 million, expect more conversations about DC trying other strange corners of its catalog.

The final weekend numbers come out Sunday.

More movie news is right here.

Header image is an official still from Clayface (DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures).