New York CNN store —
One of Paramount’s biggest blockbusters this year is a surprise hit that hasn’t faltered at the box office since it opened at #1 a few weeks ago. No, I’m not talking about Top Gun: Maverick. I’m talking about “Smile,” the studio’s chilling horror hit.
The film, in which Sosie Bacon plays a psychiatrist tormented by visions of horrifying grins, opened at the domestic box office in late September with $22.6 million. That total isn’t that remarkable on paper, but it was enough to take first place in its opening weekend and surpassed the film’s modest $17 million production budget.
“Smile” then did something Hollywood hadn’t counted on: it made almost the same amount of money in its second weekend, with ticket sales falling just 18% to $18.5 million. This is an almost unheard of stop for a great film. For example, Thor: Love and Thunder dropped nearly 70% over the second weekend in July.
And “Smile” has continued to find audiences, grossing nearly $200 million worldwide in the last month.
“When we first saw it, you could see how the audience reacted to it. They were just terrified. It went through the roof,” Marc Weinstock, Paramount’s global president of marketing and sales, told CNN Business. “We knew this was a film that people wanted to see in theaters.”
“Smile” also had a solid launch and marketing campaign that was accompanied by strong word of mouth. The trailer cleverly teased dark snippets of the film rather than give it all away. Paramount also promoted the film by having actors smile in the background of televised events.
“We’ve had people creepy smiling at a morning show and a few baseball games, and it went better than we hoped,” Weinstock said. “Even if you weren’t a fan of baseball, it went viral on social media.”
And “Smile” doesn’t just buck industry trends at the box office.
Plenty of horror films this year have done the same, showing that horror — aside from superhero films — is Hollywood’s most reliable box office genre.
The film industry is still recovering from the pandemic. Audiences have been sporadic and overall box office in North America is down about 34% from pre-Covid levels in 2019. In short, it’s a spooky time for Hollywood.
Still, the horror seems to remain seemingly immune to the streaming revolution. Smile, Universal’s The Black Phone, and 20th Century Studios’ Barbarian are examples of low-cost horror films that are pulling audiences off the couch and into the theaters.
Even “Terrifier 2,” a slasher film about a murderous clown that has reportedly had viewers in theaters vomiting and fainting, is finding an audience. The film, which had a reported budget of just $250,000, has grossed more than $7.6 million worldwide — more than 30 times its production cost.
“The horror genre is no longer marginalized and has audiences drawn to the chills and thrills that only cinema can provide with its collaborative and immersive experience,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore (SCOR), to CNN Business.
Not only does horror have widespread appeal – and is usually cheaply produced – the genre is also unique in Hollywood at this moment because the experience is markedly different for viewers watching at home or in the cinema. Studios benefit from high returns and cinemas can lure audiences away from Netflix (NFLX).
“Where else can you be in a room with hundreds of strangers all having the exact same experience?” said Weinstock. “You’re not distracted, you just sit there and have no idea what’s going to happen next. I think you can only experience that in the theater.”
“A systematic increase in quality over the years hasn’t hurt either,” adds Dergarabedian.
“The old model of underperforming, money-hungry scare fests that aimed to kill it on Friday and drop it massively on Saturday is largely a thing of the past as the genre’s new creative custodians focus more on providing a solid overall experience for viewers.” , he said. “The box office results were frighteningly impressive.”