Parker Finn hits the ball right out of the park in his directorial debut as Smile takes the first spot on its second weekend at the box office, giving it the best second-week hold for a horror film since 2017’s blockbuster, Get Out.
The film stars Sosie Bacon alongside an ensemble cast that includes Kyle Gallner, Kal Penn, Jessie T. Usher, Caitlin Stasey, and Rob Morgan. Parker Finn expanded the concept of his 2020 short film, Laura Hasn’t Slept, into 2022’s Smile.
Smile follows an ER therapist (Bacon) who starts experiencing weird hallucinations about people smiling after his encounter with something traumatic. The film fits into the transferable-curse subgenre like The Ring, It Follows, etc.
Smile takes the best parts of our favorite horror movies and makes them even darker.
According to Deadline, there were three wide-release movies in theaters this weekend- the Shawn Mendes family musical Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, an ensemble piece by David O. Russell named Amsterdam and Smile. Smile seems to have beaten all of them in its second weekend.
Smile raked in $17.6 million in its second weekend. It is just a 22% drop from its opening weekend, which is an astonishing feat for a horror movie. These astronomical numbers give Smile the best second-week hold for a horror movie since Jordon Peele’s blockbuster, Get Out.
The box office in 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic, has been a very topsy-turvy affair. Films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick have smashed all the records at the box office.
Top Gun: Maverick has collected $1.48 billion so far, making it the fifth highest-grossing domestic release of all time. Meanwhile, there have been periods of sustained failures at the box office by several unexpected entries.
The only exception seems to be the horror genre, which has been rising with every addition. Beginning with Scream in January, the genre has been at the top of the weekend charts six times this year.
It is primarily because of the originality in modern horror movies, which are no longer confined to the run-of-the-mill haunted house trope. Titles like The Invitation, Barbarian, Nope, etc., have performed really well at the box office, thanks to the freshness of their concepts.
Next weekend’s release of David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends is also expected to rule out the weekend’s numbers.
The fact that the cast of a horror movie takes a back seat is the primary reason why directors can get away with unfamiliar names and still get a hit. The horror genre might be the key to resurrecting the box office after a troubling year.
About Smile
Smile is a 2022 American psychological horror film written and directed by Parker Finn (in his feature directorial debut), based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept. The film stars Sosie Bacon as a therapist who, after witnessing the bizarre suicide of a patient, goes through increasingly disturbing and daunting experiences, leading her to believe what she is experiencing is supernatural.
Directed by Parker Finn, the film also stars Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn, and Rob Morgan. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the jumpscares, production values, and Bacon’s performance, though some noted the similarities to other horror media, such as It Follows and The Ring.
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