A24 Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Opens to $15 Million as Data Center and Delivery Robot Protests Highlight Tech Backlash

Public fascination and friction over Silicon Valley's cultural footprint converged this weekend as A24's documentary You Can See Everything—chronicling disgraced Palo Alto blood-testing startup founder Elizabeth Holmes—opened to a massive $15 million at the North American box office, even as grassroots protests targeted AI data centers and sidewalk delivery robots. Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the nearly three-hour documentary grossed $15 million across 855 screens with more than 2,000 sold-out showtimes in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, and nationwide. Film commission analysts and technology ethics boards noted the box-office surge reflects intense public scrutiny of tech founder mythology.

Industry box-office records confirm that You Can See Everything achieved the largest opening weekend for any release playing on fewer than 1,000 screens since Borat debuted to $26.5 million in 2006, and the largest non-music documentary opening in two decades since Fahrenheit 9/11 earned nearly $24 million from 868 theaters. Produced in secret over three years for under $7 million with a marketing budget below $10 million, the film captures Fielder spending more than a month with Holmes and her family prior to her reporting to federal prison. Exit polls conducted by PostTrak showed that over 70 percent of opening-weekend moviegoers were under age 35, awarding the film a 91 percent definite-recommend rating alongside a 99 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 99 on Metacritic.

That cultural skepticism toward unchecked technological expansion also surfaced in national political and street-level confrontations this week. During Thursday night's final Maine U.S. Senate debate between Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, 19-year-old Bowdoin College student and Sunrise Movement member Henry Elgie interrupted Collins's remarks to protest the energy and environmental toll of AI data centers. When Collins suggested the demonstrator was affiliated with Jackson's campaign, Jackson sharply replied that he did not even know the student, and Elgie later confirmed to The New York Times that he had zero coordination with the campaign.

Meanwhile on downtown Philadelphia sidewalks, police arrested pedestrian Carolyn Marvin on disorderly conduct charges after she stood in front of an autonomous Uber sidewalk delivery robot and refused police orders to clear its path, telling reporters she was protesting autonomous robots taking the jobs of human delivery couriers. In San Francisco, San Ramon, Alamo, and Walnut Creek, municipal planning councils and public-works committees are reviewing sidewalk robotics rules and data-center power ordinances to prevent similar community friction.

Bay Area audiences can check local theater showtimes and $16 evening ticket availability for You Can See Everything at independent cinemas along 16th Street in San Francisco, Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, and downtown Walnut Creek, or online at a24films.com. Inquiries regarding group documentary screenings may be directed to theater box offices at (415) 863-0611 daily.