Clayface Tops the Box Office With $43 Million Worldwide as DC’s Body-Horror Gamble Pays Off

DC’s newest film, Clayface, has opened at the top of the box office. The body-horror feature, directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries, took $24 million domestically and $19 million internationally in its opening weekend, for a worldwide total of $43 million, according to Film Focus Online’s weekly box office report published on October 27, 2026.

That is an adequate start rather than a spectacular one — the film only just missed Warner Bros. Discovery’s $25 million domestic projection — but the context makes it look considerably better. Clayface is the first DC Studios movie to launch since Supergirl, which ended its box office run weakly after a disappointing opening. Clayface, by contrast, earned an A- CinemaScore from audiences, much better than Supergirl’s B-, and its lower budget means it is likely to either just about break even theatrically or turn a profit once ancillary revenue is included.

Harries plays Matt Hagen, an actor whose face is disfigured and who turns to a scientist, played by Naomi Ackie, for help — a treatment that restores his face but loosens his grip on reality. The film is DC’s first R-rated body-horror entry, and critics were measured but positive, with a 76 score from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes reported alongside the strong audience response.

Elsewhere in the same weekend, A24’s documentary You Can See Everything had a stellar second weekend, growing 25% to $19.5 million and reaching $45.1 million domestically in ten days. LAIKA’s Wildwood struggled, opening to $11.6 million domestically against a $100 million budget, while Wicker, Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard’s romance, opened to $5.8 million on a small $10 million budget.

Filmverse analysis: Clayface is the most encouraging kind of result for a studio in transition — not a record, but a proof of concept. DC spent years teaching audiences that its films arrive big, expensive and loud; Clayface arrives small, strange and cheap, and audiences rewarded it anyway, with the rare A- CinemaScore that R-rated horror almost never earns. That grade matters more than the $43 million, because it suggests word of mouth rather than marketing did the work, and word of mouth is what keeps a low-budget film playing into its second and third weekends. If Warner Bros. reads this correctly, the lesson is not “make more Clayface” but “trust smaller swings” — the franchise future may belong to films that can afford to be odd.

Clayface is in cinemas now, and its reception suggests its title character will show up in future DC projects.

Source: Film Focus Online