Paramount's 'Smile' grins its way to a repeat box-office victory
Horror hit Smile (NASDAQ:PARA) (NASDAQ:PARAA) managed an impressive hold of theater business to repeat atop the box-office gross chart over the weekend, easily holding off a couple of debuts and setting up a creepy clash with a Halloween legend next weekend.
Smile fell off just 22% to $17.6M, the year's best retention for a second weekend, bringing its cumulative domestic total to just shy of $50M and resulting in a worldwide gross of $92.4M so far.
That was enough to surpass the weekend's lackluster twin openings. Children's book adaptation Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (SONY) grossed just $11.5M to come in second, and star-studded comedy/mystery Amsterdam (DIS) rolled in with a disappointing $6.5M.
The top five was rounded out by The Woman King (SONY), which pulled $5.3M in its fourth weekend, and Don't Worry Darling (WBD), with $3.5M in its third weekend.
Smile is making some timely seasonal horror money, though the film exhibitors have seemingly been waiting on comes in just four days. Halloween Ends (CMCSA) is expected to end a lengthy drought of big openings, while the following week brings DC hero film Black Adam (WBD).
Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment (AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWQ); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).