Smile 2 looking to top the first's modest 22.6 million opening weekend and Joker continues its quest to get to 60m before they stop reporting numbers.

Initially, I predicted Smile 2 would open to around $50 million, but now I'm uncertain due to Terrifier 3's insane success. It may impact Smile 2's box office performance more than anticipated. However, Smile 2's quality could mitigate this effect.

Saw that Smile 2 is tracking under $20M now. Not quite as surprising as Joker, but god damn how did they not build off the first's incredible legs?

Interesting cause I've found the trailers pretty good... still expecting over 20m.

Looking bad for Smile 2 but I am expecting walkups to be good for it. I am hoping for 25m weekend.

I have seen a ton of TikTok ads for Smile 2 and they make it look kind of lame. Why are they going with a pop star as the lead character? Horror movies do well when people can identify with the lead.

"Terrifier 3's insane success"? Yeah, damn, we've never seen another movie open well after a monumental $18 million the week prior. How will the market cope!!

Horror has been weird all year but this would be pretty disappointing, with a catchy one word name and title like Smile I expected this to grow and be a consistent horror franchise.

Say what you want, but it is an insane success. You didn't even think it could open to double digits, and it did 19 Million . The thing is, with the buzz and theaters being added, it should hold pretty solidly, and that is going to eat into the audience for Smile 2.

You could say Smile was a culmination (some would say copy) of all the popular/respected horrors from the 2010. The poppification of elevated horror. Yet maybe its just stuck in the middle now. Elevated horror fans don't take it seriously while pop horror fans want this new more cartoony style of violence provided by new villains like Art and Megan,

Sure. Now that's more realistic. If Smile 2 disappoints it will be largely due to its own inadequacies in building buzz and franchise potential following last year's surprise hit. Terrifier 3 also being in the market doesn't help the situation. But the October market is big enough to have two horror films out at the same time.

I think Smile can hit $20m, the good reviews can only help

Oh, Paramount did indeed drop the ball on this one. They should have premiered at TIFF or Fantastic Fest to build buzz earlier. That was their first mistake. Then keeping reviews embargoed for so long was a poor decision, especially baffling when they have something good.

I'm guessing they didn't expect Terrifier 3 to perform so well. Two horror films can coexist, but it's more challenging when one of them is sucking up all of the buzz. Hopefully, word-of-mouth will help Smile 2 to leg out. If people go for Terrifier 3 this weekend, maybe they’ll catch Smile 2 next weekend.


Terrifier 3 is adding 248 theaters this weekend, for 2,762 total. I'm betting the fourth can open in 3,000 theaters.

Hopefully. Let us know how walkups are tonight, if you're able to.

Good thing for Smile 2 is that it has a couple of weeks to leg out a bit. A total around $60m wouldn't be terrible. That said - Paramount have been dreadful with release dates over the last couple of years. I hope they don't screw up Sonic.

Looking good for 2.5m+ previews. That should be sufficient for it to hit 25m OW. its previews release is not that big and so its internal multiplier should be good. Plus reviews are good.

Charlie is saying 2m previews for Smile but based on data I saw its looking something near 3 than 2. Let us wait for numbers.

I hope you're right.

Looks like around $9M opening day. So its right in the disappointing but still profitable range. Maybe they should have opened earlier and enjoyed the october legs like the first one.

We Live In Time looks like 4-5 mil on 900 theatres and has great word of mouth.

We Live In Time is a total crowdpleaser and should have staying power, especially if it manages to run through the holidays.

Some highlights:

Deadpool & Wolverine beats Barbie's domestic gross.

This is the first time since 1994 that two films from the same year have finished their box office runs ranked next to each other in the top 20 all-time box office chart.

Meanwhile, Hocus Pocus has one of the biggest 1,632nd weekends of all time. haha

You sure about that?

Weren't Infinity War and Black Panther both from 2018?

I overlooked IW and BP...good call.