Clayface is headed for the top of the weekend box office after a $10.4 million Friday and previews total pushed the DC release into a $24 million to $25 million opening. The film is now expected to finish No. 1, giving James Watkins a stronger-than-expected debut heading into a crowded stretch before Halloween.
That is the number that matters today because the weekend report landed on Saturday morning, when studios and exhibitors start to see whether a title can hold its ground through Sunday. Clayface also drew 73% of its audience from the 18 to 34 group, with 35% Hispanic and Latino moviegoers and 36% Caucasian moviegoers, and it overperformed in the South and South Central regions.
The opening has a wrinkle. Clayface’s social media reach topped 363 million across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X before the weekend, yet its social media diagnostics were 47% below other DC and Marvel movies. Even so, the film converted that weaker benchmark into a stronger box office position, helped by an A- CinemaScore and close to half of its weekend gross coming from PLFs.
The movie’s best venue was AMC Burbank, where it grossed $51,000, and it had no Imax playdates because Street Fighter booked two weeks. That left PLFs to do much of the heavy lifting, a useful outcome for a film whose audience response lines up with a broader crowd than its social buzz suggested. Deadline’s read on the result was plain enough: Clayface wanted the weekend to itself, and it got it.
The comparison points are useful, too. The A- marks Clayface alongside Superman, while Supergirl and The Flash remain part of the wider DC box office conversation around audience grades. For Watkins, the immediate question is no longer whether the film can open; it already has. The question now is how far it can go once the final weekend total is locked in and Halloween weekend arrives next Saturday.
