Horror Sequel Tops Charts in Opening Weekend

“Smile 2” has carved out a decent $23 million in its opening weekend, easily topping the otherwise sleepy North American box office charts.

The sequel to Paramount creepy psychological thriller “Smile” debuted on par with expectations and even with the original film, which opened to $22.6 million in 2022. That movie, which was commissioned for streaming before pivoting to a theatrical release, became a sleeper hit with $105 million domestically and $217 million globally. The follow-up film also opened overseas with $23 million for a global start of $46 million.

Parker Finn returned to direct “Smile 2,” which cost $28 million. Naomi Scott star as a pop singer who begins to experience a series of disturbing events as she embarks on tour. It has been well-received by audiences with a “B” grade on CinemaScore, improving from the first film’s “B-” mark.

“Horror series are one of the more difficult genres to sustain over multiple episodes,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “That makes this [opening] particularly good.”

“Smile 2” was this weekend’s only new nationwide release, though several titles opened at the specialty box office. A24’s weepy romantic drama “We Live in Time” debuted impressively in fifth place with $4.1 million from only 955 theaters. The film, starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh as a young couple in unenviable circumstances, has grossed $4.5 million to date after playing for one weekend in limited release. Young women were the primary ticket buyers with 85% of audiences under 35 and 70% female.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anora” has collected $540,000 from just six theaters in Los Angeles and New York City. That translates to $90,000 per location, ranking as the best screen average — the key metric for platform releases — of the year according to its distributor, Neon. It also scored the second-highest screen average of the post-pandemic era, behind Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” and among the top five of the last half-decade alongside “Parasite,” “Uncut Gems” and “The Favourite.” The film, a comic look at an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, will continue to expand its footprint through the fall.

Elsewhere, “Joker: Folie à Deux” plunged to the No. 6 spot in its third weekend of release, collecting $2.18 million from 2,857 venues. The follow-up to 2019’s billion-dollar hit “Joker” has turned into a box office disaster with $56.4 million domestically and $168 million globally to date. By comparison, the original “Joker” had generated $96.2 million domestically and $248.4 million globally in its opening weekend. The $200 million-budgeted Warner Bros. sequel won’t get anywhere near those revenues by the time it leaves theaters.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” another Warner Bros. tentpole that opened four weeks before “Joker 2,” landed in fourth place with $5 million from 3,251 locations. Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” sequel has remained in the top five on domestic charts for seven consecutive weekends and has grossed a solid $283 million in North America and $425 million globally to date.

More to come…