The buzzy horror movie Smile retains its stranglehold on the box office and even set a new record in the process. For the second week in a row, the movie snagged the top spot and held off newcomers Amsterdam and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.
The movie now has the second-best first-place hold for an R-rated movie ever with a pull of $17.6 million and a drop of only -22%. The only R-rated movie with a better hold for its second week was Get Out, which saw a 15% drop, according to Deadline.
The movie has hit another milestone as well: it’s also the best second-week hold for a movie not released during a holiday (in the pandemic era). The movie is definitely getting some help from word of mouth, as its second Saturday haul was 38% higher than Friday.
Impression analysis company EntTelligence estimated around 1.4 million people went to see Smile, while 900,000 turned up for Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and 450,000 for Amsterdam. Lyle. The former, a family film about a singing crocodile who is voiced by pop star Shawn Mendes, was expected to do better and is still expected to pull in around $13.4 million by tomorrow.
Amsterdam fared even worse, despite featuring bona fide stars like Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and Taylor Swift. The movie’s failure adds weight to the idea that lately, only superhero movies can get people away from their streaming services and into an actual theater.
The movie pulled in an estimated $6.5 million for the weekend, which is a failure pretty much any way you look at it. It also didn’t help that critics didn’t love it – it currently sits at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’ll be interesting to see if Smile continues to dominate for a third week in a row and sticks to its current streak of exceeding expectations.