SMILE 2 | GOODRICH openings | Horror movies | Family genre update | October 18 to 20, 2024 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: October 18 to 20, 2024
1) Smile 2 opening
- This is an excellent opening for the second episode in a horror series. The weekend figure is well above average for a horror episode 2, and it's roughly even with the first picture's start (on average, these sequels start down -26%).
Horror series are one of the more difficult genres to sustain over multiple episodes. That -26% average drop compared with the first opening is steeper than, say, an action superhero #2 (steady at -1%), or a family animation #2 (only -9%). That makes this particularly good:
- Looking ahead, the challenge is keeping the story fresh and interesting. An opening like this in the low-to-mid-$20 millions has a mixed history of extending a series. Some stop at two episodes (Cloverfield Lane, Candyman). One level up at the $30-to-$40 million opening level and the series move on and have a strong run (Saw, Insidious, Scream, Paranormal Activity).
But the Smile movies are well received and this sequel delivers (the CinemaScore is a B, up from the first film’s B-). The series has good momentum now.
Horror movies
- We posted a horror genre summary chart five weeks ago when Speak No Evil opened. Not a lot has changed overall, so we won't re-post it here. The main points are:
The genre is thriving, currently with 28 wide release titles in 2024 — by far the biggest annual count in modern history;
In terms of box office, it's a solid year. We've had bigger. Having more pictures is diluting the results to some degree on a per-film basis, with a lot of smaller films jumping in;
But look at some of the low-budget pics from indie distributors: Longlegs ($108.8m worldwide), The Substance ($30m, still playing in key international markets), and Terrifier 3 (a strong first nine days) — all impressive;
And again, the genre doesn't need gigantic budgets to rock its young audience (this weekend’s Smile 2 cost a modest est. $28m).
- The summary chart with more information is here.
2) Goodrich
- This weekend also has a small release of Goodrich starring Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis on 1,055 screens that’s doing around $600k for the weekend. It’s a comedy drama about a dad who gets in over his head when his current/second wife checks into rehab and he has to deal with the kids.
Strong cast, critics’ reviews are good (a 70% Rotten Tomatoes score), and it’s the kind of comedy drama that occasionally touches the heart, but the story is tame without something extraordinary to elevate it, like a catastrophic event, a loss, or a lunatic family member.
Still, with this cast and the exposure of a theatrical release, the film is going to play well in ancillary markets in much of the world.
3) Family genre update
- We want to update the family genre chart. Wild Robot is in its third week and still putting up good numbers. With Inside Out 2 breaking records and Despicable Me 4 finishing sensationally well, 2024 has gone from a good year for family films, to an outstanding year. Only 2019 was bigger at the BO, and it had 24 pics; this year has just 15.
Three important movies remain: Moana 2 (Nov 27), Mustafa: The Lion King/live-action (Dec 20), and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Dec 20).
Family moviegoing has come all the way back after the pandemic and is in very good health now — excellent news for the industry:
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