SATURDAY AM: Paramount and other studios are calling Smile at a $19M opening. In a deja vu to last weekend with New Line’s Don’t Worry Darling, another genre pic, this R-rated horror film has received a B- CinemaScore and a severe 69%/53% definite recommend on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, a standard audience reaction for such fare.
Don’t Worry Darling
Paramount’s horror movie Smile struck up $2M in Thursday night previews that started at 7 p.m., a figure that’s just above M. Night Shyamalan’s Old from summer 2021, which did $1.5M in its previews, and just under Universal/Blumhouse’s Black Phone Thursday previews which were $3M in June. Paramount is expecting a high-teens start this weekend,
There might be a box office surprise this weekend in Paramount’s horror movie Smile. Yes, we’re serious. The pic, from writer-director Parker Finn, was developed by Paramount Players, and the studio took a wait-and-see approach as to where would land — on Paramount+ or theatrical. Then Paramount held a test screening, and Smile played to great
UPDATE, writethru: There was extra oomph at the international box office this weekend as Disney’s rerelease of 20th Century Studios’ Avatar grossed $20.5M from 50 offshore markets for a $30.5M global launch. The remastered 4K HDR version of the biggest movie ever was catnip to fans with No. 1s in several markets and, as designed,
New Line’s Olivia Wilde-directed genre movie Don’t Worry Darling grossed $3.1M in previews split between Monday’s sold-out Imax fan screenings and Thursday showtimes that began at 4 p.m. Warner Bros.’ original projection for the movie starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh was $17M this week, while industry sources peg the R-rated pic’s start between $20M-$26M.
After a near month of mudslinging behind the scenes drama for Don’t Worry Darling which hovered around its Venice Film Festival world premiere, the sophomore feature directorial from Olivia Wilde finally opens in 4,000 theaters. However, Warner Bros. need not sweat the tabloid headlines. No, all of that has only made this Florence Pugh, Harry
No, the tabloid headlines about all the behind-the-scenes mishesgoss on Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling isn’t hurting ticket sales. The Imax Live Experience advance screening for the Florence Pugh, Harry Styles and Chris Pine genre movie was the fast-selling for the large format exhibitor to date with 21 Imax locations selling out in 24 hours. And these
National Cinema Day is underway with 3,000+ participating theaters (30,00 screens) offering $3 tickets, discounted concessions and a four and a half-minute preshow sizzle reel with peeks of upcoming titles from A24, Amazon Studios, Disney, Focus Features, Lionsgate, Neon, Paramount, Sony and Sony Pictures Classics, United Artists Releasing, Universal and Warner Bros. Trailers include Avatar 2:
EXCLUSIVE, UPDATED WITH QUOTE & SOCIAL MEDIA WATTAGE: The Olivia Wilde directed movie doesn’t open until Sept. 23, but on tracking, Don’t Worry Darling is off to a promising start, tracking hot with 17- 24-year-old women and also young guys. In sum, Harry Styles fans. And as far as all those tabloid behind-the-scenes Don’t Worry Darling headlines
When Dwayne Johnson takes the stage at San Diego Comic-Con next week, it would be truly seismic if he was to announce that Warner Bros. was moving up the release date to its New Line/DC movie Black Adam from Oct. 21 to earlier in the fall. However, that’s not going to happen. A pile-up of big