Parker Finn‘s Smile opened wide across the United States over the weekend, the film generating a whole lot of buzz on the internet not only with positive reviews but also a clever viral marketing campaign that brought the film’s creepy smilers out in the real world. That buzz, as we expected, has resulted in box office success for Paramount’s original horror movie.
Across 3,645 theaters, Smile opened to $22 million at the domestic box office over the weekend, instantly shooting the horror movie to the top of the box office charts. The number is even more impressive worldwide, with Smile to date scaring up $36.5 million thus far!
The reported production budget for Smile was $17 million, which means the film is well on its way to being profitable in just the first three days. Paramount is smiling wide right now.
Back in June, Universal’s The Black Phone posted similar opening weekend numbers on a similar budget, going on to make $89 million domestically and $159 million worldwide.
Can Smile achieve the same success in the coming weeks? Stay tuned…
In the film, “After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain.
“As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.”
Smile also stars Jesse T Usher (“The Boys”), Kal Penn, Rob Morgan (“Stranger Things”), Kyle Gallner (Scream 2022), and Caitlin Stasey (All Cheerleaders Die).
Meagan wrote in her Smile review for BD, “There’s a familiarity to the curse’s nature and formula, drawing easy comparisons to several beloved horror films. Even still, it’s well crafted and introduces a fresh feeling mythology, with some genuine scares along the way. Smile makes for a solid enough crowd pleaser heading into the Halloween season.”