On the heels of a detrimental fallout of Joker: Folie a Deux and its rock-hard collapse (not even past $200 million worldwide in its third weekend), we needed a sequel to come back in the fold to remind us everything is “okay.” Smile 2, while no breakout sequel, can affirm with solidarity that opening right on par with your predecessor in terms of opening weekend debuts is good enough.
The $28 million budgeted horror sequel is the official “last horror” picture of the seasons, as we’ll be into the week of Halloween and swiftly moving along to the winter holidays. But a $46 million global debut is a good initiation for this horror sequel. The Naomi Scott-led feature follows her with further disturbances while she heads on another pop star tour in NYC; positive reviews and a B from CinemaScore will keep it moving along, although this writer is skeptical it could pull monster legs like its predecessor when it shot up to $217.4 million worldwide. At the very least, a reasonable $75-85 million domestic and $170 million worldwide can make it another success story for Paramount Pictures.
In other horror news, Terrifier 3 is already inching towards $40 million globally. It’s already blown past Last Tango in Paris ($36 million in 1972) to become the most significant unrated grossing feature; once it quickly shreds through $45 million, it’ll become the highest X-rated feature out there. Who knows, but we could be talking about the unthinkable where this clown triumphed another from Folie a Deux‘s $56.4 million domestic total (and counting). Speaking of Joaquin Phoenix, his led sequel has earned not even one-fifth of its predecessor’s totals. Had Warner Brothers budgeted this musical sequel to a cheaper chapter, we could be labeling it as a sequel that may not have come close to its predecessor but kept financials in check.
The Wild Robot has passed $100 million domestically and should pass $200 million globally by tomorrow. This makes it Lupita Nyong’o’s second $100 million domestic grosser (after A Quiet Place: Day One) in 2024. Potential Academy Award winner incoming?
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice keeps pushing to $300 million domestically, Transformers One will pass $125 million worldwide later this week, and Saturday Night and Piece by Piece have passed $7 million domestically.
Finally, despite this harsh awards season, A24’s We Live in Time earned $4.18 million, a good number for the Andrew Garfield/Florence Pugh-led melodrama.
Next weekend, we will see the release of Venom: The Last Dance, Conclave, Your Monster, Magpie, and La cocina.
