A Very Sad Weekend POURcast This Weekend…
Before we get into this week’s movies, we are still stunned by the death of Sir Patrick Stewart.
Stewart died Wednesday at 86, leaving behind one of those careers that seems impossible to summarize cleanly because it crossed so many worlds. One of the preeminent Shakespeare actor of our time, Star Trek, X-Men, theater, television, film, comedy, voice work. He brought intelligence and dignity to nearly everything he touched, and for generations of movie and television fans, that voice alone could make a room feel different. We will have much more to say about his life and work, but this weekend, the bar feels a little quieter without him.
And So, welcome to the Weekend POURcast, your boozy guide to the box office.
Every Friday, we serve up what’s new in theaters and on streaming, movies only, paired with a curated cocktail suggestion to match the weekend.
And this is not a normal weekend; Halloween falls on Saturday, which means Hollywood has largely decided not to throw a major new release into the middle of costume parties, haunted houses, trick-or-treating, and people making decisions they will absolutely regret by Sunday morning. Instead, we get one of those rare weekends where holdovers may matter more than newcomers, and where a three-hour documentary about Elizabeth Holmes could actually become the No. 1 movie in America.
Perfectly normal stuff.
Last Weekend in Review
Clayface opened at No. 1 last weekend with $24 million, a solid result for a hard-R DC body-horror movie built around one of Batman’s stranger villains. The movie landed below the upper end of some forecasts, but it still gave DC Studios a clean win and, more importantly, proved there may be real value in letting comic-book movies behave like actual genre films instead of forcing every character into the same superhero template.
The bigger story was You Can See Everything, which became an even bigger story in its second weekend. After opening to $15.6 million from just 855 theaters, the A24 documentary expanded to 2,655 locations and jumped 25% to $19.5 million. That pushed its domestic total past $45 million and turned Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s Elizabeth Holmes experiment into one of the strangest success stories of the year.
Wildwood opened in third with $12.3 million, giving LAIKA a respectable return to theaters, while Street Fightercrashed 72% in weekend two to $8.6 million. Wicker rounded out the Top 5 with $5.7 million.
So now we arrive at Halloween weekend with no giant new release, a documentary gaining momentum, a horror-comic-book movie trying to hold, and a beautifully weird stop-motion fantasy quietly earning excellent word of mouth. That is actually a pretty fun board.
New in Theaters This Weekend
The Mongoose
Liam Neeson is back in a car. At this point, that sentence is basically its own genre.
In The Mongoose, Neeson plays a war hero falsely accused of a crime who takes off on a cross-country escape while law enforcement closes in. Marisa Tomei, Ving Rhames, and Michael Chiklis co-star, with Mark Vanselow directing. The wrinkle here is that the chase becomes a public spectacle, with ordinary people beginning to root for Neeson’s character as the pursuit unfolds. That gives the movie a little more contemporary bite than the usual “Liam Neeson is angry and somebody is going to pay” setup.
Still, nobody is pretending this is Hamlet. This is a cross-country chase movie starring Liam Neeson, Ving Rhames, and Michael Chiklis.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
This may be the most appealing adult movie opening wide this weekend.
John Turturro stars as Harry Lehman, an aging pickpocket trying to keep practicing his trade in a New York where nobody carries cash anymore. When he steals the wrong item from the wrong person, Harry finds himself racing to recover it while protecting the few people and places he still cares about.
Giancarlo Esposito, Steve Buscemi, Tatiana Maslany, and Jamie Lee Curtis round out the cast, and early reviews have been very kind to Turturro’s performance.
The movie sounds less like a conventional crime thriller and more like a melancholy New York character piece about obsolescence, which is probably why it feels so appealing. Harry is not just trying to survive a criminal problem. He is trying to survive becoming outdated.
Everest: The Other Side
National Geographic Documentary Films brings Everest: The Other Side to theaters and IMAX this weekend, and this may be the weekend’s most visually spectacular option.
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the filmmakers behind Free Solo, the documentary follows elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson as they attempt one of the most dangerous goals in the sport: climbing and skiing the direct North Face of Mount Everest. The movie is built around extreme sport, but the larger story is about love, obsession, ambition, and loss.
If you are going to see this one, IMAX feels like the obvious choice. Mountains are one of the few things movie screens are still allowed to make look intimidating.
Sight & Sound Presents: JOSHUA Live!
Sight & Sound brings its new production of JOSHUA to theaters nationwide beginning Friday.
The filmed stage production follows Joshua as he takes over leadership from Moses and leads the Israelites through the wilderness toward the Promised Land. The presentation was captured live and is being released theatrically as a large-scale faith-based event. This is unlikely to compete for the top of the weekend, but faith-based theatrical events continue to find committed audiences, and the combination of live stage production and cinematic presentation gives it a clear identity.
On a weekend where everything else is competing for adults, horror fans, or documentary audiences, having your own lane is not a bad thing.
Christmas at the Kringles
Apparently Halloween weekend was not chaotic enough, so somebody brought Christmas horror.
Christmas at the Kringles stars Ron Livingston and Rachel Bilson as parents who discover that their relentlessly festive neighbors may be less “Hallmark Christmas” and more “sinister yuletide cult.” Rob Riggle plays a washed-up Mall Santa who gets involved in the rescue attempt, which should tell you roughly where the tone lives.
This is holiday horror-comedy arriving literally the day before Halloween.
Also Arriving in Theaters
- Peter Berg’s The Mosquito Bowl begins a select theatrical run this weekend before arriving on Netflix in November. Based on Buzz Bissinger’s book, the World War II drama follows college football stars who enlist in the Marines after Pearl Harbor and eventually take part in the legendary wartime game that gives the movie its title.
- Netflix is also opening Gentle Monster in select theaters. Léa Seydoux stars as a concert pianist whose attempt at a quieter family life collapses after police arrive at her home and force her to confront the possibility that her husband may not be the person she thought he was.
- For horror fans looking for something smaller, The Canvas also arrives this weekend with a simple enough premise: a disturbing painting in an isolated house appears to be alive, and reality starts deteriorating around it.
Box Office Forecast: October 30th-November 1st, 2026
1. You Can See Everything
$13M to $17M
I think the documentary finally takes the crown. That still sounds insane, but the numbers support it. The movie rose 25% last weekend, added more theaters, and continues to generate unusually strong conversation among younger audiences.
Halloween Saturday may actually help. Horror fans and families have plenty of non-movie plans, while the documentary audience is not necessarily choosing between Elizabeth Holmes and a costume party. If it wins, this becomes one of the best box office stories of the year.
2. Clayface
$10M to $14M
The word of mouth has been solid, and the movie opened well enough to stay competitive. The problem is Saturday. Halloween landing on the middle day of the weekend is rough for horror because some of the audience that would normally show up is going to be doing Halloween instead.
Still, an R-rated body-horror DC movie finishing second in weekend two is hardly a disaster.
3. Wildwood
$6M to $8M
Strong reviews and excellent audience response should help LAIKA’s latest hold better than most movies in this range. The family audience also gives it some insulation from the stranger adult titles on the board.
4. The Mongoose
$5M to $8M
Liam Neeson remains Liam Neeson. There is a dependable audience for this kind of action thriller, even if the genre is increasingly becoming something people wait to watch at home. A strong enough older-skewing turnout could push it higher.
5. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
$3M to $6M
This feels like the adult sleeper. The cast is excellent, reviews have been warm, and Turturro rarely gets a leading role this rich. It is not going to explode, but it could become the kind of movie people keep discovering over the next several weekends.
Halloween Horror Check
Halloween is literally beginning tomorrow, and the funniest thing about this weekend is that horror may actually lose a little box office because of it. That sounds backwards, but Saturday Halloween means the audience most likely to watch horror movies also has the most competition for its attention. Costume parties, haunted attractions, neighborhood events, and actual Halloween celebrations all pull from the same crowd.
That could hurt Clayface more than expected.
At the same time, horror fans are hardly starving. Clayface is still playing, The Canvas arrives this weekend, Christmas at the Kringles turns holiday cheer into nightmare fuel, and several earlier October releases remain available. If you want scares, you have options. If you want to dress like a scarecrow and drink punch out of a plastic cauldron, you also have options.
Balance, people.
New Movies on Streaming This Weekend
Streaming has the stronger collection of true new movie premieres this weekend.
Collision Course | Netflix
Netflix premieres Collision Course on Friday.
The Spanish thriller begins with a bank robbery and a getaway crash that starts exposing the secrets, lies, and betrayals among the people involved. What initially looks like a crime story gradually becomes a story about everything that went wrong before the crime even started.
This feels like classic Friday-night Netflix material: contained setup, escalating paranoia, bad people discovering they trusted even worse people.
A Couple of Lies | Netflix
Also arriving Friday is A Couple of Lies, about two wealthy couples who arrange a home swap between Sicily and Stockholm. Naturally, everything goes wrong. What starts as an idyllic exchange becomes increasingly toxic as both couples discover that the other pair may be hiding considerably more than they expected. European houses, attractive people, secrets, money, and escalating bad behavior.
SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of | Netflix
Netflix also premieres SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, a documentary celebrating the Canadian sketch-comedy institution that helped launch some of the most important comedy careers of the last fifty years. The film reunites surviving cast members and looks back at the show’s influence, creative chaos, and long-lasting friendships.
Given the week we are having, a documentary about artists making each other laugh for decades may be exactly what some people need.
You, Me, Us | Netflix
Netflix added You, Me, Us on Thursday, making it part of this weekend’s new movie mix.
The romantic drama follows a free-spirited woman and a more traditional man as they pursue adoption and discover that their very different ideas about family may be harder to reconcile than expected. For anyone who wants a movie this weekend that does not include murder, monsters, crime families, haunted paintings, or mountain fatalities, congratulations. We found one.
Weekend Drink Pairing: The Executive Order Cocktail
For Halloween weekend, I am going with The Executive Order Cocktail.
Not because it is particularly spooky, but because this weekend is about one movie unexpectedly taking control of the room.
You Can See Everything started as a limited-release documentary curiosity and now has a legitimate chance to become the No. 1 movie in America in its third weekend. Nobody planned for that. Nobody built the weekend around that. The movie simply kept growing until everybody else had to reorganize around it. That feels like an executive order. It also gives us a cocktail already living on CocktailsandMovies.com and keeps us from falling into the trap of choosing something orange, smoky, or named after a zombie simply because the calendar says Halloween.
Sometimes the scarier choice is Elizabeth Holmes.
Final Pour
This is one of those weekends where the absence of a giant new release makes the box office more interesting, not less.
You Can See Everything has a chance to do something genuinely unusual and climb to No. 1 in its third weekend. Clayface gets its first real test of staying power. Wildwood looks positioned to become another long-legged LAIKA favorite, while Liam Neeson, John Turturro, Mount Everest, biblical spectacle, Christmas cultists, and haunted artwork all compete for whatever audience is not already wearing a costume Saturday night.
And after the news of Patrick Stewart’s death, maybe there is something comforting about spending a weekend with movies, old favorites, and people whose work mattered to us.
The bar is open.
And a spot of Earl Grey in honor of the Captain. 🍸🍿
