There are a lot of genres that are struggling at the box office in 2022, but horror most definitely isn't one of them. Between Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's Scream, Scott Derrickson's The Black Phone, and Jordan Peele's Nope, scary movies have been some of the year's biggest surprises, and that trend is continuing with Parker Finn's Smile. The film dominated its competition last weekend, and the numbers its done since this past Friday are even more impressive while going up against a pair of new releases in David O. Russell's Amsterdam and Will Speck and Josh Gordon's Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.
Check out the full weekend box office Top 10 below, and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Smile | $17,600,000 | $49,894,662 | 1 | 3,659 |
| 2. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile* | $11,500,000 | $11,500,000 | Row 1 - Cell 3 | 4,350 |
| 3. Amsterdam* | $6,500,000 | $6,500,000 | Row 2 - Cell 3 | 3,005 |
| 4. The Woman King | $5,300,000 | $54,129,639 | 3 | 3,342 |
| 5. Don't Worry Darling | $3,475,000 | $38,450,735 | 2 | 3,324 |
| 6. Avatar | $2,560,000 | $783,820,034 | 4 | 2,040 |
| 7. Barbarian | $2,180,000 | $36,530,203 | 7 | 2,160 |
| 8. Bros | $2,150,000 | $8,894,410 | 5 | 3,356 |
| 9. Top Gun: Maverick | $800,000 | $714,677,366 | 10 | 1,127 |
| 10. Bullet Train | $640,000 | $102,391,618 | 8 | 918 |
Smile Drops Only 22 Percent Weekend-To-Weekend To Claim Its Second Box Office Victory
It's typical for a new release to see its box office revenue dip between 40 and 60 percent in its second weekend compared to its first three days in theaters, but Smile can now be designated as a statistical outlier. The film was deemed a winner last Sunday when it made $22.6 million in its debut, but now it is a certified hit. The estimated $17.6 million the original horror feature has brought in registers as just a 22 percent drop weekend-to-weekend, which is, needless to say, awesome.
Awesome as the results are, one could also call them predictable. That original $22.6 million made by Smile indicates a whole lot of buzz, and that buzz is backed by a solid 78 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Throw in the fact that we are now in the heart of spooky season, and you have a formula for a big second weekend score. The positive performance by Zach Cregger's Barbarian last month (not to mention its continued earnings in October) gave us a preview of movie-goers' hunger for good, original horror in the run-up to Halloween, and Parker Finn's movie has fully capitalized.
On top of the money that Smile has made domestically, The Numbers says that it has also already made $40 million abroad. That brings its worldwide total to $89.9 million and guarantees that it will be considered one of the year's greatest box office stories by the time that 2022 comes to a close. This is a movie that, per Variety, only cost $17 million to make, and its already quintupled that number. Even when you subtract marketing and publicity costs, this is a huge win.
Clearly Smile is playing with a hot hand, but what will be fascinating to observe is its performance in its third weekend. Clearly Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Amsterdam didn't steal away its core demographics (more on those two films in a minute), but there is a big movie coming up this Friday that absolutely will: David Gordon Green's Halloween Ends. The hyped conclusion to the modern Halloween trilogy is looking to capture the attention of the exact same audience as Smile, and that may result in a big fall in the numbers released next Sunday.
Halloween Ends is going to be dealing with a box office handicap, as it was announced this past summer that the film is going to be a hybrid release that goes to theaters and Peacock simultaneously. Will that have any kind of impact on audiences who would potentially buy tickets for a big screen double feature with Michael Myers and Smile? We'll find out in a few days.
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile Puts Up Rather Mediocre Numbers In Its Opening Weekend
Unfortunately, another pattern that has continued at the 2022 box office this weekend is seeing one particular movie dominate while everything else does modest business or worse. In the case of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, one could argue for it being more on the "modest" side of the scale, but that's partially influenced by the fact that it at least managed to make eight figures in its opening weekend.
The $11.5 million it made is good enough to rank Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile as the thirty-third biggest opening weekend of the year – sandwiched between Baltasar Kormákur's Beast and Barbarian – and while that doesn't look great, the bigger issue is the fact that the movie cost more than both of those films' budgets combined. According to the New York Times, the family movie based on the book of the same name had a budget in the neighborhood of $50 million, which means it still has quite a while to go before it will be deemed profitable.
Despite Its Star-Studded Cast, Amsterdam Does Little At The Box Office And Settles For Third Place
The filmmakers behind Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile are probably disappointed by the box office results, but one thing that the film can hang its hat on is the fact that it didn't do nearly as badly as Amsterdam, the only other new wide release that came out this weekend. The mystery-driven feature sports an ensemble cast that is full of popular names – including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor Joy, and more – but it failed to wow critics and now it's apparently failing to wow audiences.
The bad kicker here is how much it cost 20th Century Studios to make Amsterdam. Bringing so many talented stars together isn't inexpensive, and Deadline says that David O. Russell was given $80 million to work with. When a film manages to only make about eight percent of its budget back in its opening weekend, it seems pretty fair to apply the word "flop."
Hopefully next weekend's box office numbers are a bit rosier as a result of the final battle between Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode and the boogeyman Michael Myers. Halloween Ends arrives in theaters on Friday, and we'll have the news on its box office performance here on CinemaBlend Sunday morning.
For a peek at what's ahead in what remains of the year, check out our 2022 Movie Release Calendar.
