A highly anticipated new film about Elizabeth Holmes – the charismatic young biotech entrepreneur turned fraudster – is on track to become one of the biggest documentaries in decades.

You Can See Everything, produced by film studio A24 and directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, made a whopping $US15 million ($A21.48 million) from just 855 cinema screens in its opening weekend in the US.

That makes it the second-biggest opening for a documentary after Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. A24 says its new film had more than 2000 sold-out sessions, some of which reportedly attracted lines around the block.

To put the figures in perspective, Tom Cruise’s much-talked about box-office bomb Digger made just $US8 million ($A11.50 million) in the US on its opening weekend.

“Nathan Fielder has made the movie of the year,” declared the headline on Vulture’s review of You Can See Everything, while Variety described it as “a shameless, fascinating, reality-TV-eats-its-tail look at entitled duplicity”.

The Daily Beast went even further, saying it was “not just the film of the year – it’s a documentary that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the form’s all-time greats”.

The nearly three-hour documentary, which was filmed when Fielder and Oppenheim were “embedded” with Holmes’ family just before she began an 11-year prison term, has a 98 per cent approval rating from 135 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

It is also generating Oscar buzz – with some media outlets suggesting it could become the first documentary nominated for a best picture award.

YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING, a documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Featuring Elizabeth Holmes. Only in theaters this October. https://t.co/b3Pcx0Se2o

— A24 (@A24) September 7, 2026

Holmes, for anyone who hasn’t been following along, was a Stanford University dropout who at just 19 created health technology start-up Theranos. It claimed to have invented a device called the Edison that would revolutionise blood testing.

As its founder and CEO, Holmes had a 50 per cent stake in the company, which at its peak in 2014 was valued at $US9 billion ($A12.6 billion). That same year, she was said to be the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, while the following year Time included her as one of its 100 most influential people.

High-profile investors including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Oracle software company co-founder Larry Ellison were among those won over by Holmes and her slick sales pitch.

However, it all came crashing down when doubts were raised about the tech, with Holmes and Theranos chief operating officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani ultimately jailed for fraud.

@newyorker “You Can See Everything,” Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, “is a tremendously rich film,” our film critic Richard Brody says. “It’s a strange, wonderful, troubling movie.” Read his review at the link in our bio. #youcanseeeverything #nathanfielder #elizabethholmes #filmtok ♬ original sound – The New Yorker

The whole saga has previously been the subject of a book (John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start-Up), a TV mini-series (The Dropout, which won actor Amanda Seyfried an Emmy for her portrayal of Holmes), an ABC News gripping true-crime podcast (also titled The Dropout), and numerous other docos, stories and podcasts.

None of that, however, has dulled the excitement around You Can See Everything.

Part of the documentary’s appeal is the way in which it was filmed.

It was set in motion after Holmes, who still claims her innocence, and partner Billy Evans invited Fielder, Oppenheim and a film crew to stay in a guest house on their San Diego property and document their lives in the 34 days leading up to her beginning her prison sentence in 2023.

“What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss,” A24 says in the promotional material for the film.

It is worth noting that although the story of Holmes’ fall from grace is well documented, most reviews of the film avoid what they describe as “spoilers” about the second section of the film.

“Arguably the less you know about anything that is to come, the better,” says The Guardian‘s critic, adding that enjoyment of You Can See Everything depends partly on an element of surprise.

You Can See Everything has debuted with a 4.7 rating and is now the highest rated feature film on Letterboxd. https://t.co/d5DnG2ApQT

— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) October 16, 2026

The studio’s “guerrilla marketing” has also been credited with fuelling anticipation for the film, which sparked myriad memes ahead of its opening. A teaser released last month further whet the appetite of fans.

“I don’t have anything to deceive you on – of course I’m not deceiving you,” a wide-eyed Holmes tells Fielder in the intense clip, as one of her two young children can be heard and seen in the background.

“I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you?”

Ultimately, the filmmakers’ relationship with Holmes and Evans soured after the latter tried to exert an “uncomfortable” level of control over the process, Oppenheim told a Q&A screening in Los Angeles last month.

“Neither of them have seen the film,” he said. “Elizabeth is still incarcerated; Billy hasn’t seen it.”

You Can See Everything will open in Australia on November 12.