A couple of years ago, A24 announced its intention to level up and challenge some of the bigger studios in the business. The outfit had spent a decade in the trenches of indie cinema, occasionally delivering a breakout horror hit. Only one of its movies in that first decade — Everything Everywhere All at Once — cracked the coveted $100 million mark worldwide. However, following a major fundraising round, the studio began to release bigger movies that delivered greater hauls at the box office. This year has been particularly successful, with a string of films across genres exceeding expectations. Now, the most unexpected hit of the bunch is nearing a major box-office milestone.
A24’s transition to mid-budget films began with Civil War, the dystopian thriller directed by Alex Garland, which generated nearly $130 million worldwide against a reported budget of $50 million. Civil War was followed by Marty Supreme, which grossed nearly $200 million worldwide against a reported budget of $70 million. There were also a couple of major underperformers during this phase, such as Ari Aster‘s Beau is Afraid and Benny Safdie‘s The Smashing Machine.
However, things got back on track in 2026, beginning with The Drama. Starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, the film grossed more than $130 million worldwide against a reported budget of $28 million. Pattinson also headlined the psychological thriller Primetime, which generated nearly $50 million domestically against a reported budget of $14 million. It was this summer that A24 delivered its biggest-ever hit, the horror film Backrooms, which grossed $400 million worldwide against a reported budget of under $10 million.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.
The Silence of the Lambs · Hannibal · 1991–2002
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.
Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on.
The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
Batman · The Dark Knight · 1989–2019
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for.
His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong.
He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Sherlock Holmes · The Final Problem · Since 1893
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room.
This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing.
It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
No Country for Old Men · 2007
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are.
No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
Call it. He will wait.
Here’s How Much the Movie Has Grossed at the Box Office
The biggest surprise came recently, when the three-hour documentary You Can See Everything shattered records in its limited release before taking the number-one spot on the domestic charts following its wide expansion. Co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Primetime filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, the movie follows the disgraced tech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in the 30 days leading up to her incarceration for fraud. It holds a “Certified Fresh” 96% critics’ score and a “Verified Hot” 95% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Nathan Fielder’s ironclad commitment to the bit is pushed to its limit in You Can See Everything, an inscrutable Rorschach test of Elizabeth Holmes’ psyche that’s as absorbing as it is haunting.”
You Can See Everything was given a textbook platform release, opening in 855 theaters before expanding into more than 2,600 locations nationwide. At its widest, the film played in 3,243 theaters. In its fourth week, it saw a decrease in its theater count for the first time, losing 770 locations. The movie has shattered box-office records for documentaries with a running domestic haul of $80 million. It has a strong chance of hitting the $100 million mark, while A24 begins campaigning for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
October 16, 2026
Runtime
174 minutes
Director
Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim
Producers
Tatiana Bears, Maggie Ambrose, Jack Davis, Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim
