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 Smile, his debut. Originally intended for streaming, Paramount sent the movie to theaters in fall 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 bigger budget and a theatrical commitment from the start. Playing on 3,619 screens, it opened slightly higher than the first's $22 million. The No. 1 openings for Smile 2 this weekend and Terrifier 3 last were 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. One of the 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, stars Mikey Madison as a New York sex worker who falls for the son of a Russian oligarch.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Smile 2, $23 million.
- The Wild Robot, $10.1 million.
- Terrifier 3, $9.3 million.
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, $5 million.
- We Live In Time, $4.2 million.
- Joker: Folie à Deux, $2.2 million.
- Piece by Piece, $2.1 million.
- Transformers One, $2 million.
- Saturday Night, $1.8 million.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas, $1.1 million.
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