‘Clayface’ Falls Short of Lowered Expectations With $24M Debut

DC Studios pulled out a $24 million opening for Clayface, and the best argument for calling it a “win” is that things could’ve been worse. That’s a low bar for a company built around some of the most famous heroes in the world. The body-horror film came in below projections of $25 million to $30 million. It still beat the $19.5 million second weekend of A24’s You Can See Everything. With a reported production budget of $44 million, it also carries far less financial risk than the usual superhero spectacle. But a smaller budget isn’t the same thing as a guaranteed profit. To be fair, Clayface isn’t a household name, and a gory horror movie was never going to draw the same crowd as a major superhero event. Nobody should expect Batman numbers from every Batman villain. But that raises a question DC can’t dodge: Why make a third-tier Batman villain the third movie in a universe that’s still trying to win people over? James Gunn and Peter Safran are in the second year of their theatrical rebuilding effort. They don’t need every release to break records. They do need to give moviegoers a clear reason to care. So far, the results look more like a collection of uneven bets than a studio th...