It would be impossible to overstate how impressive Paramount’s record has been so far this year. Overperforming in its second weekend, the horror flick Smile became the sixth cinematic smash for the company and has now crossed the $50 million domestic barrier. The picture debuted with a spectacular $22.6 million in its opening weekend, then followed it up with an $18.4 million weekend two, posting one of the leanest decreases ever for an R-rated horror movie. Merely slightly higher than Jordan Peele’s Get Out’s second-weekend loss of 15% in 2017, Smile’s decrease was only 18% in its second weekend. It also had the best second-weekend hold of any No. 1 opening since Crazy Rich Asians’ 6% decrease in the weeks before the 2018 flu outbreak.
The movie has made $92 million so far, putting it on the verge of breaking the $100 million milestone internationally. Paramount opted against a direct-to-streaming premiere for Smile, despite the film’s positive test screenings and an estimated budget of $17 million. Again, a horror film that was widely anticipated to debut online has been awarded a theatrical distribution due to positive word of mouth. Recent weeks have seen Disney make the unusual decision to release a 20th Century Studios picture, Barbarian, in cinemas rather than on Hulu following promising early screenings. The production of Barbarian only costs $4 million, yet it has already made approximately $40 million throughout the world.
Its success can be attributed to its entertaining trailers, which urged viewers to avoid any prior knowledge of the film and instead experience it “cold.” To promote Smile, Paramount got creative by buying seats at baseball games and deliberately placing actors who were positioned to smile maniacally for the camera. And the gamble was fruitful. Smile is the latest in a succession of cinematic blockbusters for Paramount in 2022, after Scream, Jackass Forever, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, The Lost City, and Top Gun: Maverick. This year’s post-summer season has been notably quiet, helping movies like Smile and Barbarian do quite well at the box office while also helping Bullet Train earn over $100 million US.
But although Smile has proved that smartly-marketed unique genre films can still work in a theatrical context, the box office result of filmmaker Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling demonstrates that pre-release social media talk doesn’t necessarily transfer into economic success. Despite having a larger budget, premiering at a more prestigious festival, and featuring a far more famous cast, Don’t Worry, Darling has been unsuccessful at the box office. The film Smile, helmed by Parker Finn and starring Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Jessie T. Usher, Kal Penn, Caitlin Stasey, and Rob Morgan, has an all-star cast.
This week sees the release of Universal’s Halloween Ends, the final instalment in the franchise, and the film’s success at the box office is likely to be affected by its competition for the top place.
Synopsis
Dr Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) begins experiencing terrifying, unexplainable phenomena after witnessing a peculiar, horrific episode involving a patient. Fear becomes all-consuming, forcing Rose to face her troubled history if she wants to survive and escape her terrifying new world.