Clayface opens soft, misses projections by $10M+

Clayface landed with a thud this weekend, opening to $24 million domestically and $43 million globally—well short of the $45 to $55 million global projection some outlets had called for. Directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries as the shapeshifting villain Matt Hagen, the DC origin story cost $44 million to make, which means it's already underwater unless it legs out hard in the weeks ahead.

The good news: audiences who showed up weren't turned away. Clayface earned an A- CinemaScore, and critics gave it a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes—solid enough for a villain origin, which is a tricky sell. The bad news is that solid wasn't enough to draw crowds on opening weekend. In a crowded marketplace, that's a red flag.

The box office landscape is brutal right now. You Can See Everything, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, held strong in its second weekend with $19.5 million after opening to $15.6 million. The stop-motion animated Wildwood from Laika Studios, directed by Travis Knight, arrived with a perfect 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes but faced an uphill battle with its $100 million budget—a massive spend for animation in 2026.

Meanwhile, Klara and the Sun, the Taika Waititi film starring Jenna Ortega, barely registered, pulling in just $720,000 to $725,000 from 880 locations. That one landed a brutal 24-25% on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences didn't follow critics' lead.

The Radazoid take

Here's the thing: DC's been trying villain origins for years now, and audiences just aren't as hungry for them as the studios hope. We grew up on heroes—Superman, Batman, the whole Justice League—and while the Joker movie proved there's an audience for a dark, grounded take on a DC character, that was lightning in a bottle. Clayface is a shapeshifter, which is cool on paper, but it's not exactly the Joker or Harley Quinn. The character's a B-lister, and no amount of solid reviews can change that if people don't care who he is.

This is bad news for DC's theatrical plans. A $44 million budget on a villain origin that misses projections by double digits suggests the studio is swinging and missing on what audiences actually want to see. It's not a disaster—yet—but Clayface needed to open bigger to have any real shot at profitability. Unless it finds an audience in the coming weeks, this one's headed straight to the loss column.