It would certainly seem like Paramount has a new horror franchise hit as Smile 2 wins the weekend box office.

Smile 2 Is A Hit At The Subdued Box Office

Smile 2

As per Box Office Mojo, Smile 2 debuted in first place with $23 million. The film was eying a $20 million to $40 million debut; I predicted it would land around $30 million. Considering that horror sequels generally do well in October, it wasn’t too tough of a sell.

The box office in general was down 11% over last year, and last year had to contend with the effects of the writer’s strike including major delays on many key titles. So without those delays, the box office should’ve gone up but it’s indicative of trends with moviegoers as people look towards streaming as their primary form of taking in content. Still, with this in mind the movie still (slightly) outgrossed the original film’s $22.6 million opening. However, that film was originally going to be a streaming exclusive and pivoted to a theatrical release. Since Smile 2 was designed to be a theatrical film from the outset, it had a higher production value and thus should’ve attracted a bigger crowd.

Still, the movie cost a paltry $28 million to make. So, the film is well on track to be considered profitable, ensuring that we’ll likely see a Smile 3.

The Rest Of The Box Office

The Wild Robot kept its second-place spot from last week, earning $10.1 million. Terrifier 3 dropped from first to third, earning $9.3 million. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice dropped to fourth with $5 million.

Rounding out the Top 5 was We Live In Time which left its limited theatrical run and went into a wider release. The Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh romantic drama made $4.1 million.

Next Week’s Predictions

Next weekend sees the release of Venom: The Last Dance. A movie with strong walk-in value as we saw with Venom‘s $80 million opening in 2018; and Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s $90 million opening in 2021.

Still, it’s a different box office than in 2018 and 2021 and I think it would be wrong to assume that the third film will put up the same numbers as both films, especially considering the year-over-year diminishing of the box office.

Venom: The Last Dance is tracking for a $53 million to $75 million opening. I see it landing closer to $65 million. It’s worth noting that Sony is touting this as the ‘final’ Venom film. Also, with walk-in crowds its easy to get a boost to predicted numbers. I don’t think it’s enough to surpass $75 million, but I do think the film will certainly be on the higher end of its tracked numbers.

As always, we’ll find out next week!

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