After slipping to #2 at the North American box office this past weekend, Clayface made $1.2 million in U.S. theaters on Monday. It's a respectable result, albeit one that's kept the R-rated DCU body horror in second place behind You Can See Everything's $1.4 million haul.
This week will establish whether Clayface has legs—Halloween weekend is an anomaly, with even the biggest hits suffering a drop in ticket sales—but one box office analyst remains unconvinced.
Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock, one of the most respected box office pundits in the game, has shared his no-holds-barred take on Clayface's box office performance. While some have been quick to declare the DC Studios title a hit, he strongly disagrees.
"For those keeping track... here are the facts," Bock wrote on X. "DC's Clayface cost approximately $40–44M before a substantial P&A marketing spend, and WB does not keep the entire worldwide gross. At a likely $115–125M finish, it may eventually become profitable through post-theatrical revenue."
"That doesn’t make it a breakout hit or generate the (pop) cultural momentum DC desperately needs," he continued. "'Probably won’t lose money' is an awfully low standard for one of the world’s biggest IP brands. Analysis isn’t hate simply because fans dislike the conclusion. Get it? Got it. Good."
It's a harsh assessment, albeit a realistic one. Clayface is not a box office flop, but DCU fans who desperately want James Gunn's franchise to succeed—and understandably so—continue to argue that it's a hit because it had a low budget and are excusing lower-than-expected box office takings on it being a body horror.
That doesn't fly when this is a DC movie, especially as it was promoted as one. While Clayface won't lose hundreds of millions of dollars like Supergirl, it making no theatrical profit isn't a good result, and doesn't bode well for the DCU as a brand.
Theatrically, Superman likely operated at a minor net loss or barely broke even; new DC Studios owners Skydance will expect more, especially when they look at the record-breaking success Marvel Studios has found this year with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. That's not a very fair comparison, but the Ellisons have acquired Paramount and Warner Bros. to make money, and their patience may wear thin.
In Clayface, Matt Hagen’s meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss’s actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting-edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self, but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiralling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.
The movie stars Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the "cult-favourite" villain from Gotham's rogues' gallery. The cast includes Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan, as well as Nancy Carroll and Joshua James.
We concluded our Clayface review by saying, "Tom Rhys Harries shines in Clayface, an uninspired and unoriginal movie that's too light on horror and lacking in comic book personality to be anything but forgettable. It should have been a game-changer for the genre; instead, it's DC's Morbius moment."
Directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, Clayface is now playing in theaters.