'Clayface' Tops the Box Office With a $10.4 Million Opening Day

Clayface took $10.4 million at the North American box office on Friday, putting DC’s R-rated horror film at No. 1 for the day.

The figure, reported by Variety and Deadline, includes $3.5 million from Thursday previews. Without the previews, the true Friday total was about $6.9 million.

The film is now projected to open to $24 million to $25 million for the weekend, from 3,458 theaters. Some forecasts run higher, to $28 million. It added $4.3 million internationally on Friday.

That is a better start than tracking suggested. Presales at one point ran well behind this summer’s Supergirl, and forecasts had slipped as low as $15 million to $20 million.

Audiences liked what they saw. The film earned an A- CinemaScore, a strong grade for an R-rated horror release, where B and C grades are the norm. It holds a 76 percent critics score and a 94 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Directed by James Watkins, the film stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a movie star whose face is badly disfigured. He agrees to an experimental procedure that turns him into the Batman villain of the title. Naomi Ackie co-stars, along with David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan.

The budget was $44 million, not counting marketing. That is a far smaller bet than DC’s recent superhero releases. Supergirl cost $170 million and opened to $37.1 million in the summer. Clayface is the first DC Studios film to open since then.

In second place, A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything took $6.1 million on Friday and heads for about $19 million to $20 million in its second weekend, up from its opening. The documentary expanded to 2,600 theaters after opening in 855.

Saturday will decide how big the Clayface opening really gets. Horror openings often lean on Friday, and a soft Saturday would pull the weekend toward the low end of the range. A strong one would confirm the word of mouth that carried Friday past expectations.