“Smile 2” matched its predecessor with a box office gross of $23 million

There's good news for several films at the box office this weekend, starting with Paramount's “Smile 2,” which, despite competition from bloodthirsty indie darling “Terrifier 3,” debuted to $23 million with a $3,619 opening weekend will rival its predecessor in theaters after earning $9.4 million on Friday, including $2.5 million from Thursday previews.

Two years ago, “Smile” opened with $22.6 million in September and grossed $109.5 million domestically and $217.4 million worldwide on a production budget of $17 million. “Smile 2,” in which Naomi Scott plays a pop star doomed by a deadly curse, had only a slightly higher budget at $28 million and earned a B rating from critics on CinemaScore and 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and 86% were received positively by the audience.

The good news for theaters is that none of this came at the expense of “Terrifier 3,” which continues to attract viewers who dare to take on the challenge of watching Damien Leone's ultra-violent slasher threequel. In its second weekend, the Cineverse/Bloody Disgusting release is expected to reach $9.6 million, down just 48% from its $18.8 million opening, for an estimated total of 36.4 million US dollars over two weekends.

With this result, “Terrifier 3” is expected to gross at least $50 million despite the low production and marketing expenses of $2.5 million and become one of the five best horror films at the box office this year. With Halloween still ahead of us, all signs point to the film continuing to stall.

More to come…

The post “Smile 2” Matches Its Predecessor With $23 Million Box Office appeared first on TheWrap.