Box Office Report: Smile For the Cameras

Spooky season continues. It’s really a lifestyle more than a season for some of us but hey, at least October gives us some solid horror offerings. This past weekend’s box office winner was Smile 2, which earned $23 million from 3,619 theatres. It didn’t have any competition, which certainly helped, but it also got solid reviews (our own Lindsay said it was better than the first one.) As we’ve said many times here on the Box Office Report, low-to-mid-budget horror movies are always a safe bet.

Speaking of horror, Terrifier 3 continues to do good business. It dropped 50% from its opening weekend but still made over $9 million this past weekend. That’s enough to keep it in third place, ahead of the still-popular Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. That spooky sequel is on $283.9 million domestically after seven weeks, giving Warner Bros. a safe hit. That might help to offset the continuing downward spiral of Joker: Folie a Deux, which is only at $56.4 million after three weeks. Remember: $200 million budget. Ooft.

At least it’s not Megalopolis, which is currently at number 24 with just over $7.5 million domestically.

A24’s romantic drama We Live in Time, starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, expanded its run to just under 1,000 cinemas, which was enough to push it from number 18 to number four. Its $4.5 million domestic gross is a solid indie hit for the beloved distributor, which has more critical clout than commercial.

Tis the season for Halloween-y re-releases, and for some reason, a huge chunk of my generation is extremely nostalgic for Hocus Pocus. I don’t get it, I must admit. But lots of people do, and it’s a big enough deal for it to have earned $841,000 from 1,480 theatres. That’s less than the ongoing re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I think that film just has a larger cultural footprint, if only because of Hot Topic crap. Both are Disney titles so they’re happy either way.

Guy Maddin’s bananas sci-fi political satire Rumours made $314,082 from 630 locations, while Mubi’s re-release of the iconic cult classic (and Lee Pace thirst trap vehicle) The Fall brought in $166,366 from 78 cinemas.

In further limited release news: The documentary Union made $10,000 from 114 places, and The Line, the final film of actor Angus Cloud, grossed $8,487 from one location.

This coming week sees the release of Venom: The Last Dance and Papal drama Conclave.

You can check out the box office for the rest of the weekend here.