DC's 'Clayface' takes in $3.5 million from Thursday previews

The James Watkins-directed film, a stand-alone story about the Batman villain, cost $44 million to produce, both outlets reported, far less than DC's bigger superhero releases.

Its main competition is You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. It opened to $15.6 million in 855 theaters last weekend, which Variety called the biggest launch for a nonmusical documentary in 20 years, and is expanding to about 2,600 theaters. Black Bear's Wicker, starring Olivia Colman, made $620,000 in previews.

Why it matters: Deadline describes Clayface as DC Studios' move into lower-budget genre films, so its run is an early read on that approach.