The biggest movie in North America this weekend is the one you can walk into almost anywhere. Street Fighter, Paramount and Legendary’s new run at the Capcom brawler, won the box office the way a wide release is built to win: on every multiplex marquee, with most of its money coming through premium screens. The film people are actually lining up for is a marathon-length documentary about the Theranos founder, playing in a fraction of those theaters.

That split is the real story of the weekend, and it changes the decision a moviegoer makes before leaving the house. For the Capcom adaptation, the only question is which format to pick. For You Can See Everything, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the question is whether a seat is left at all.

Street Fighter wins, just not by as much as Paramount wanted

Paramount’s film took $13 million on Friday, Thursday previews included, from 3,575 North American theaters, and is heading to roughly $31 million for the weekend, according to estimates reported by Variety, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter. That is first place, and it is short of the plan: The Hollywood Reporter says the studio had been expecting a debut in the mid-$30 millions. Deadline puts it 19% behind the $38.5 million opening of Mortal Kombat 2 in May.

The money raises the stakes. Street Fighter cost a net $82 million, co-financed by Legendary and Capcom, and it is the first release under Paramount’s distribution deal with Legendary. Kitao Sakurai directs; Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji and Callina Liang star.

The audience signals are lukewarm rather than alarming. Moviegoers gave it a B- CinemaScore, the same grade TheWrap notes the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme version received, and a step below the B for Mortal Kombat 2. Critics are harsher: The Hollywood Reporter counts 42% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, and its critic Frank Scheck called the film a “jumbled tonal mess.”

The crowd is not the one the PG-13 rating might suggest. Deadline’s exit data has men over 35 at 45% of the audience, with parents and kids under 12 at only 11%. And 58% of the weekend came from premium large-format and IMAX screens. Paramount is selling this as a big-screen event to an older male crowd, and that crowd is paying for the big screen.

You Can See Everything is the ticket you have to plan for

A24’s documentary opened on 855 screens, roughly a quarter of the Street Fighter footprint, and made $5.5 million on Friday. Weekend estimates run from about $12 million to $14 million. Deadline says that would be the second-best opening ever for a documentary, behind the $23.9 million of Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. Expectations before release sat at $7 million to $8 million; it has already passed the $7.1 million that Amazon MGM’s Melania opened to from about twice as many screens.

The scarcity is measurable. A24 reports more than 1,300 sold-out screenings as of Saturday morning, per TheWrap and Deadline; The Hollywood Reporter, citing the studio, put the count at roughly 750. Deadline describes lines around the block at venues such as the Village East in New York and the Belcourt in Nashville, and says 41% of buyers purchased their tickets on the day. With that much walk-up demand, a showtime that looks open in the morning is no promise by evening.

It is also a commitment: the film runs 174 minutes and is rated R. Variety describes it as an unhinged look at the Theranos founder in the month before she began an 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, made by Fielder and Oppenheim over more than three years. The people who get in are not complaining. Deadline reports a 91% definite-recommend score on PostTrak, with 62% of the audience aged 18 to 34, and The Hollywood Reporter cites 99% approval on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and audiences.

Whether it reaches more cities soon is unsettled. World of Reel reported on Thursday that A24 had decided to take the film wider next Friday; a day later, TheWrap wrote that the studio had yet to divulge any expansion plans. Until A24 names a theater count, the film is strongest where Deadline says it is selling best: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Seattle.

Whalefall paid for the overlap

The weekend’s casualty sits further down the chart. Whalefall, 20th Century Studios’ $60 million survival thriller, opened to about $7.5 million against the $11 million the studio was projecting, and Deadline blames the overlap in male audiences with Street Fighter. Focus Features’ Sense and Sensibility landed around $6.7 million with an A- CinemaScore. Deadline estimates the overall weekend at $101 million.

Street Fighter did what a franchise opening is supposed to do, and no more. TheWrap warns it could prove as frontloaded as Mortal Kombat II, and JoBlo notes that overseas grosses will decide whether a sequel happens. The documentary did something no tracking model priced in. Paramount owned the screens this weekend; A24 owned the line outside them.