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There’s really one true one wide release this weekend and it’s Paramount‘s sequel Smile 2, which currently sees presales pointing toward a high-teens-millions opening. Tracking earlier this week indicated higher, in the $20 million-plus range, but that all depends on whether Latino and Hispanic moviegoers send this $28M-priced sequel to the 2022 original to another stratosphere.
The original movie is the stuff of post-Covid legends, an example of how a Hollywood major studio with a streaming service shifted a film away from a home release to a mega theatrical release after testing; Smile debuted to $22.6M at the box office and legged out to $105.9M domestic and $217.4M worldwide. Some studios couldn’t do that — re Disney with Hocus Pocus 2, which was confined to its Disney+ release despite great test scores.
Smile 2 sees its original director-writer architect Parker Finn returning. The first movie followed a psychiatrist, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), who after dealing with a traumatic incident involving a patient begins experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. The sequel here stars Power Rangers and Aladdin star Naomi Scott as a pop star who begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. She is overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame and is forced to face her past.
The first movie was 80% certified fresh with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a B- CinemaScore. Smile 2 is currently 86% fresh off 36 reviews.
Why the lower result here for Smile 2? When the first movie opened, there wasn’t a lot of horror on the marquee at the time, with much of the fall of that year sparse due to the delay of movies coming out of Covid, and the post-production logjam. We’ll continue to assess the up and down as the weekend goes on.
Smile 2 will have the PLFs as part of its 3,500-theater count this weekend. Where are the Imax screens? Why they’re part of a three-week deal on Warner Bros’ bomb Joker: Folie a Deux.
The R-rated Smile 2 is largely skewing to under 25 females as opposed to the male-skewing Terrifier 3, which did a great $2.2M yesterday for a five-day running total of $23.7M. The Cineverse microbudget success is expected to ease by 60% in weekend 2, per sources, for around $7.6M. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the unrated horror film holds better. Smile 2 and Terrifier 3 do have some overlap in their audiences.