‘Smile 2’ grinning to No. 1 at box office; ‘Anora’ glitters in limited release

By Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press on October 20, 2024.

Horror movies topped the domestic box office charts and an Oscar contender got off to a sparkling start this weekend. “Smile 2,” in its first weekend, and “Terrifier 3″ in its second proved to be the big draws for general movie audiences in North America, while the Palme d’Or winner”Anora” got the best per-theater average in over a year.

“Smile 2” was the big newcomer, taking first place with a better than expected $23 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Parker Finn returned to write and direct the sequel to the supernatural horror “Smile,” his debut. Originally intended for streaming, Paramount pivoted and sent the movie to theaters in the fall of 2022. “Smile” became a sleeper hit at the box office, earning some $217 million against a $17 million budget.

The sequel, starring Naomi Scott as a pop star, was rewarded with a bit of a bigger budget, and a theatrical commitment from the start. Playing on 3,619 screens, it opened slightly higher than the first’s $22 million.

Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” in its fourth weekend with $10.1 million, bumping it past $100 million in North America. Family films often have long lives in theaters, particularly ones as well reviewed as “The Wild Robot,” some have speculated that it got a bump this weekend from teenagers buying tickets for the PG-rated family film and then sneaking into “Terrifier 3,” which is not rated, instead. Either way, Damien Leone’s demon clown movie, which cost only $2 million to produce, is doing more than fine with legitimate ticket buyers. It added an estimated $9.3 million, bringing its total to $36.2 million.

The No. 1 openings for “Smile 2″ this weekend and “Terrifier 3″ last were only possible because of the failure of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” That big budget sequel continued its death march in its third weekend, falling another 69% to earn $2.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $56.4 million.

Warner Bros. has a better performer in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which placed fourth in its seventh weekend with an additional $5 million, bringing its domestic total to $284 million. Star Michael Keaton also had another film open this weekend – the father-daughter dramedy “Goodrich” which stumbled in with only $600,000 from 1,055 locations.

Rounding out the top five was the romantic tearjerker “We Live In Time,” which expanded to 985 theaters following last weekend’s debut on 5 screens. The A24 release starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh earned $4.2 million over the weekend. Audiences were 85% under 35 and 70% female, according to exit polls. The well-reviewed film will expand further next weekend.

One of the other brightest spots of the weekend was Sean Baker’s “Anora,” which opened in six locations in New York and Los Angeles and earned an estimated $630,000. That’s a $105,000 per theater average, the best since “Asteroid City’s” $142,000 average last summer. The Neon release, a sensation at Cannes and a likely Oscar contender, stars Mikey Madison as a New York sex worker who falls for the son of a Russian oligarch.

After several weeks of would-be awards contenders and buzzy films (“Piece by Piece,” “Saturday Night,” “The Apprentice” among them) fizzling with audiences, “Anora’s” success is a promising sign that moviegoers will still seek out arty, adult fare.

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