“You can see everything” in North America, but outside of it you will have to wait a long time

“You Can See It All,” directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, about the story of Elizabeth Holmes, was a box office success in the United States and Canada, received critical acclaim, and became widely talked about. But for cinephiles outside this region, like Ilya Krasilchik, it has become a real feeling of “missing out.”

When Krasilczyk, a 39-year-old resident of Berlin, could no longer bear the torrent of posts and memes about the film on social media, he and his wife resorted to one solution, which was to travel to Poland, where it is available in theaters. The couple made the two-hour drive to the Polish city of Szczecin to watch the film with Polish subtitles, an idea they got from a friend who made the same trip, and others have reported online that they have done the same thing or are thinking about doing it.

Immediately after the film ended, they returned, covering a distance of 93 miles (about 150 kilometers), while discussing the details of the film and its exciting twists and turns along the way back. “I'm glad we did it,” Krasilczyk said.

I spent two hours in the car on the way back saying: Wow! "How wonderful that we traveled to Poland for this."

This was the first time that Krasilczyk had traveled to another country just to watch a movie, but he felt that he had no other choice. He explained, "It is impossible to watch this movie in Western Europe right now, it is completely impossible." The slowness in releasing films of this type outside their original markets is common, as small films are often not shown in multiple markets at the same time, and it may take months for the film to reach international theaters.

However, this remains an agonizing wait for Nathan Fielder fans abroad, who are forced to wait weeks or months before they have the opportunity to see the film. So far, the film has only been officially released in Turkey, with previews being held in some cinemas in Poland, like the one Krasilczyk attended, while other countries will have to wait a long time.

If you reside in the United Kingdom, for example, you will not be able to watch it before November 20, while in France, you will have to wait until December 30, 2026. This delay has prompted audiences abroad to do their best to avoid revealing the secrets of the film before watching it.

“It's hard to avoid spoilers online, even when you know you'll be able to watch the movie later,” said Jonathan O'Brien, a 30-year-old from Melbourne, Australia, where the film won't be released until November 12. "When you realize there's a time difference of up to a month, and you have to take precautions so you don't spoil your viewing experience, it becomes a bit of a norm for movie fans in Australia." “No one in the world knew this film existed in the first place.” The demand for the film - both inside and outside the United States - came as a surprise even to the “A24” company that produced it, especially since neither Felder nor Holmes were considered among the names that guaranteed certain commercial success, in addition to the fact that the film is approximately 3 hours long and deals with a topic that has been touched upon many times in previous works.

A source close to the production company, who preferred to remain anonymous in order to speak freely about internal discussions, said: “I don’t think anyone could have predicted this. You never know how the world will react, and that is exactly what makes it so exciting.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, the film was produced in complete secrecy; Only less than 10 people out of 300 employees at A24 knew of its existence. This secrecy ensured an immediate uproar when it was unexpectedly revealed at the Telluride Film Festival in early September.

But this also means that the rest of the company's departments faced some kind of obstacles when it came to planning the release of the film in the regions where it usually distributes its films itself, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, or when negotiating deals with distributors in other markets, which are processes that require holding conversations with theaters, negotiating with age classification bodies in various countries, and developing marketing plans. A source inside “A24” said: “As a reminder, no one in the world knew about the existence of this film 6 weeks ago.

The film was released as a real pleasant surprise, the first of its kind in this style. To maintain its confidentiality, procedures for launching it in other regions have only begun recently.”

As this process continued, O'Brien and his friends in Melbourne resorted to muting certain keywords on social media, or trying to look away while browsing to avoid anything that might reveal details of the film. His anxiety is not limited to that, but he also feels that he is missing the opportunity to participate in the vital discussions taking place around him.

"You don't just want to see the movie, you wish you had actually seen it. It's a real feeling of missing out," O'Brien said. "It's like arriving late to a party, where everyone has already left."

On the Internet, movie fans in other countries expressed their dissatisfaction with what they considered to be a painful slowness in releasing a film that had become the talk of everyone. One widely circulated post on the “X” platform said: “Being a fan of cinema outside the United States...”, accompanied by a poster for the film that was modified to read: “You can’t see anything.”

Internet users also joked about organizing sit-ins inside cinemas or even resorting to violence. Another post on the “X” platform said: “You can see everything, unless you are from Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Ireland, New Zealand, the Philippines, India, or...”

Anticipation mounts The film's gradual release was also adopted in the United States in order to build anticipation. When "You Can See Everything" was released in America, it was initially limited to about 855 theaters, which is an average number for a regular film, but very large for a documentary.

Residents of states where the film was not shown appealed to others online not to spoil their viewing pleasure, before it expanded to more than 2,600 theaters in its second weekend. With the film currently seeking to occupy first place at the box office, its showing is scheduled to expand to include about 600 additional theaters during the weekend that coincides with Halloween.

The very positive reception the film received in the United States, both from critics and audiences, will make it easier to sell in foreign markets, as many movie fans are eager to see the first documentary that appears to be a strong candidate for a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Early indications are there is real demand. In Australia, the Palace cinema chain, which operates 25 theaters across the country, reported that advance ticket sales for You Can See It All recorded the fastest daily sales rate for any film since Taylor Swift's Eras tour documentary, according to a source close to A24.

This great momentum led to a kind of “bidding war” for international distribution rights, as Sony Pictures won the rights, thus distributing the film in Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Africa, India, South Korea, Greece, Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Austria. In this regard, a Sony representative said: “Release dates are still being finalized, but given the film’s strong performance in the United States and the international interest we are seeing, we are working to make it available to audiences in the regions where we distribute the film as quickly as possible.”

A24 also entered into agreements to distribute the film in other European countries, but with very different screening times. In Portugal, for example, the film will be shown starting on November 12, while audiences in neighboring Spain will have to wait until December 24, which could prompt some Spaniards to follow Krasilczyk's example and take a road trip across the border.