‘Smile’ Leads Box Office With Scary Good $22 Million Opening, ‘Bros’ Fizzles With $4.8 Million

EXCLUSIVE: Dark Sky Films has acquired North American distribution rights to Mother, May I?, the psychological thriller starring Kyle Gallner (Smile) and Holland Roden (Teen Wolf). 

Broadway box office held steady at $28,621,480 last week as a slate of new productions began or continued previews (Almost Famous and Kimberly Akimbo filled more than 90% of their seats), MJ and Leopoldstadt set house records and The Phantom of the Opera was once again standing room only as the long-running Andrew Lloyd Webber musical heads toward its Feb. 18 closing.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Paramount’s R-rated thriller “Smile” continues to beat box office expectations in North America and beyond. Over the weekend, the horror movie added $16.3 million at the international box office, boosting its overseas tally to $66.4 million. Globally, “Smile” has grossed $137.5 million, a killer result for a film with a $17 million production budget. It’s an even bigger win when taking into account that “Smile” was originally commissioned for the streaming service Paramount+ and wasn’t intended to play in theaters at all. But positive test screenings encouraged Paramount to give the film a full theatrical rollout. It’s the studio’s latest win following “Top Gun: Maverick,” “The Lost City,” “Scream” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Halloween Ends” slayed the box office competition, collecting $41.25 million from 3,901 North American theaters in its opening weekend. The movie had a softer start than expected (projections were closer to $50 million to $55 million) but it’s still impressive considering its simultaneous release on Peacock likely cut into ticket sales. “Halloween Ends” also faced unexpectedly steep competition from Paramount’s creepy thriller “Smile,” which continued its killer run with $12.4 million (a minimal 33% decline) in its third weekend of release. The R-rated “Smile” has grossed $71.1 million in North America to date, a scary-good result since it cost $17 million to produce. At a time when movie theaters have been struggling to bounce back from COVID, horror has been a consistent bright spot.

Jordan Moreau “Halloween Ends” is just beginning — the final installment in the long-lived horror franchise picked up $5.4 million at the box office in Thursday night previews. The film should hack and slash its way to $50 million to $55 million in its opening weekend, according to projections, even with a same-day release on Peacock. Last year’s “Halloween Kills” opened to $49 million at the box office and had the same Peacock release strategy, so an even bigger launch would be bloody good for the Universal film. Jamie Lee Curtis’ PTSD-riddled survivor Laurie Strode faces off against psycho killer Michael Myers once again for the 13th entry in the franchise, and “Halloween Ends” promises to be the very last showdown between the two foes — at least, until another reboot comes knocking at the door. The “Halloween” timeline is as full of holes as one of Michael’s victims, but the latest movie caps off a trilogy of modern-day sequels that began with 2018’s “Halloween” and its 2021 sequel “Halloween Kills.” The three movies follow the events of John Carpenter’s original 1978 horror, which introduced audiences to Curtis in her film debut and the soon-to-be slasher icon Michael Myers. There have been a handful of other “Halloween” sequels and two rebooted films directed by Rob Zombie, but the new trilogy retcons those and catches up with Laurie and her family 40 years later.

Paramount’s Parker Finn-directed horror pic Smile has laughed its way across the $100M mark globally. And it did so in under two weeks of release. Through Tuesday, the gross is $102.3M worldwide, made up of $55.5M domestic and $46.8M from the international box office. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Laurie Strode is going out with a bang. “Halloween Ends,” the supposed finale to Universal’s long-running slasher series (are we ever going to be able to quit Michael Myers?) is targeting a healthy $50 million to $55 million in its opening weekend even with its hybrid release on Peacock. If those estimates hold, it’ll be the first movie since “Thor: Love and Thunder” in July to open to at least $50 million. “Halloween Ends” is the rare day-and-date release with a proper point of comparison since its predecessor also launched on streaming during the pandemic. “Halloween Kills” opened to $49 million last October while landing simultaneously on the NBCUniversal-owned Peacock — a bloody-good result given the COVID-era limitations in 2021. “Halloween Ends,” which is playing in 3,800 North American theaters, has the added benefit of monopolizing the entire Imax and premium large format footprint.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter At the box office, horror movies have a tendency to run out of steam faster than a teenager being chased through the woods by a masked killer. Even the most successful scary stories are known to earn the bulk of their money in the first weekend of release. Yet “Smile” and “Barbarian,” two recent big-screen thrillers, have defied conventional wisdom by impressively sticking around in theaters after opening weekend. Ticket sales for “Smile,” in particular, nominally declined in between its first and second weekend of release, a sign of exceptionally positive word-of-mouth. Over the weekend, Paramount’s “Smile” retained the No. 1 spot in North America with $18 million, sliding just 18% from its $22 million start. At the international box office, something even crazier happened: “Smile” actually improved on its debut by 31%, bringing in $19.1 million in its second weekend. And it continues to flex during the week, adding $2.6 million domestically on Monday. After only 12 days in theaters, the movie is already nearing the coveted $100 million mark. It’s a bloody-good result for the $17 million-budgeted “Smile.”

Kevin Bacon is opening up about his involvement in Bernie Madoff‘s Ponzi scheme, which lost the actor “most” of his money.

Monday’s episode of the SmartLess podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.During the interview, Bacon revealed that he and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, had invested “most” of their money in Madoff. “There’s obvious life lessons there. You know, if something is too good to be true, it’s too good to be true,” Bacon said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Comedy action film “Confidential Assignment 2: International” claimed its fifth successive weekend victory at the South Korean box office as only U.S. horror film “Smile” was able to break into the top five.The CJ Entertainment-distributed “Confidential Assignment 2” managed $1.64 million over the Friday to Sunday period, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That represented a 27% share of the market. “Confidential Assignment 2” recorded a 27% weekend on weekend decline. That pushed its cumulative total to $47 million, earned form $6.52 million ticket sales since release on Set. 7, 2022.

Smile has received rave first reactions on social media from fans.Written and directed by debut filmmaker Parker Finn, Smile follows Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), who, after witnessing a traumatic incident involving a patient, starts to experience terrifying and inexplainable occurrences.Alongside Bacon, the cast also includes The Boys star Jessie T.

Smile,” despite its sunshine-y name, is currently scaring the hell out of America.The original Paramount horror movie debuted at #1 at the box office this weekend. And for good reason – it’s really scary! “Smile,” from writer/director Parker Finn, follows a young doctor named Rose (Sosie Bacon), who uncovers an insidious curse after one of her patients murders herself in front of Rose.“Smile” recently had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, an international film festival in Austin, Texas that specializes in genre movies. Known for its raucous crowds, Bacon told TheWrap what that first screening was like.

“Smile,” which was projected for an opening in the high teens against its $17 million production budget, actually saw a slight 4% increase in grosses from Friday to Saturday, beating industry estimates which had predicted a slight decrease after the film earned audience scores of B- on CinemaScore and a 69% positive rating on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak. While those scores could signal a more frontloaded box office run, the word-of-mouth among hardcore horror fans still seems to be running pretty strong and giving “Smile” a chance to match the $23.6 million opening of Universal/Blumhouse’s “The Black Phone” from earlier this year if Sunday numbers also beat projections.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Hold onto your bucket hats: Sony’s action-thriller “Bullet Train” crossed $100 million at the domestic box office. It’s an impressive milestone (in post-COVID times) for an original movie that doesn’t involve marquee comic book heroes or intergalactic adventures. It helps, of course, that a bankable actor like Brad Pitt stars in the film, as a heavily therapized assassin named Ladybug. “Bullet Train” reached $101 million in domestic ticket sales on Friday, making it only the 14th release this year to hit that benchmark. With another $130 million at the international box office, the film has now earned $231 million in global ticket sales to date.

J. Kim Murphy “Smile” has something grin about this weekend. The creeper is projected to land a $19 million debut from 3,645 locations. It’s a fantastic start for the genre film, which carries a modest $17 million production budget. Compared to other original horror entries this year, Universal’s supernatural kidnap thriller “The Black Phone” kicked off with $23 million while 20th Century Studios’ “Barbarian” opened to $10 million. “Smile” landed a mildly positive “B-” grade through research firm Cinema Score, though such a figure is standard for a horror release. The film has drawn good buzz with solid reviews, scoring a 79% from top critics on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Variety‘s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised the film in his review, writing that it “sets up nearly everything — its highly effective creep factor, its well-executed if familiar shock tactics, its interlaced theme of trauma and suicide — before the opening credits.”

“Smile,” which stars Sosie Bacon and Kyle Gallner and just had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin before opening this Friday (September 30), is super creepy and unsettling.But how do you watch the new movie? Read on to find out:“Smile” is, at present, exclusively playing in movie theaters. This is honestly probably a good thing, as its effectiveness is directly related to the amount of teenagers screaming and throwing their popcorn around you. This is a real matinee-at-the-mall movie, in the best possible way.Paramount+ is pretty slippery when it comes to when its movies are hitting the service.

Written and directed by Parker Finn, Smile personifies trauma and examines its ripple effect and how it connects people, places, and things. The film stars Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, and Kyle Gallner.