It continues to be a very strong year for original horror as Smile, the feature directorial debut from Parker Finn, has just crossed a major milestone. In short order, no less. As reported by Deadline, the film has officially crossed the $100 million mark at the global box office less than two weeks after it first hit theaters. Given that its budget was a comparatively small $17 million, that already makes this a home run for Paramount Pictures. And the movie still has a long way to go.
As of this writing, the film sits at $102.3 million, with $55.5 million domestic and $46.8 million from overseas. The movie, which premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas ahead of its wide rollout, has topped the domestic charts in its first two weeks. What’s more, it dropped a mere 18.3% in its second weekend, suggesting excellent word of mouth to go along with the critical praise. Brian Robbins, CEO and President of Paramount Pictures, had this to say:
“The moment we saw this film we knew it had immense cinematic potential, and we’re beyond thrilled and proud to see that audiences around the world agree wholeheartedly and are turning out in record numbers. Thank you to our director, Parker Finn, our creative partners and our production team for delivering a fantastically terrifying movie; and thank you to our global marketing and distribution teams for hitting it out of the park once again.”
Smile now joins several other original horror hits in 2022 that have performed well commercially, including The Black Phone, NOPE and Barbarian. For those who perhaps haven’t seen the movie yet, the synopsis reads as follows:
“After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.”
One of the most fascinating things, in this case, is that Paramount almost missed the boat on all of this money entirely. Originally, Finn’s film was planned to go directly to streaming on Paramount+. Fortunately, following positive test screenings, they wisely pivoted to a wide theatrical release. In the end, this will likely finish out the year as the highest-grossing original horror film of 2022. The Black Phone ($160 million) currently has that honor.
The cast also includes Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Kyle Gallner (Scream), Robin Weigert (Deadwood), Caitlin Stasey (I, Frankenstein), Kal Penn (Clarice), and Rob Morgan (Stranger Things).
Smile is in theaters now. Check out our Smile interview with director Parker Finn and star Sosie Bacon, and catch more Smile in our latest issue.
