عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

‘Smile 2’ Grinning to No. 1 at Box Office; ‘Anora’ Glitters in Limited Release

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Ray Nicholson in a scene from "Smile 2." (Paramount Pictures via AP)
This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Ray Nicholson in a scene from "Smile 2." (Paramount Pictures via AP)
TT
TT

‘Smile 2’ Grinning to No. 1 at Box Office; ‘Anora’ Glitters in Limited Release

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Ray Nicholson in a scene from "Smile 2." (Paramount Pictures via AP)
This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Ray Nicholson in a scene from "Smile 2." (Paramount Pictures via AP)

Horror movies topped the domestic box office charts and an Oscar contender got off to a sparkling start this weekend. “Smile 2,” in its first weekend, and “Terrifier 3” in its second proved to be the big draws for general movie audiences in North America, while the Palme d’Or winner “Anora” got the best per-theater average in over a year.

“Smile 2" was the big newcomer, taking first place with a better than expected $23 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Parker Finn returned to write and direct the sequel to the supernatural horror “Smile,” his debut. Originally intended for streaming, Paramount pivoted and sent the movie to theaters in the fall of 2022. “Smile” became a sleeper hit at the box office, earning some $217 million against a $17 million budget.

The sequel, starring Naomi Scott as a pop star, was rewarded with a bit of a bigger budget, and a theatrical commitment from the start. Playing on 3,619 screens, it opened slightly higher than the first's $22 million, The Associated Press reported.

Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” in its fourth weekend with $10.1 million, bumping it past $100 million in North America. Family films often have long lives in theaters, particularly ones as well reviewed as “The Wild Robot,” and some have speculated that it got a bump this weekend from teenagers buying tickets for the PG-rated family film and then sneaking into “Terrifier 3,” which is not rated, instead.

Either way, Damien Leone’s demon clown movie, which cost only $2 million to produce, is doing more than fine with legitimate ticket buyers. It added an estimated $9.3 million, bringing its total to $36.2 million.

“Rumors like that are PR gold,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “There’s no better indication that that movie is red hot right now."
The No. 1 openings for “Smile 2” this weekend and “Terrifier 3” last were only possible because of the failure of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” That big budget sequel continued its death march in its third weekend, falling another 69% to earn $2.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $56.4 million.
Warner Bros. has a better performer in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which placed fourth in its seventh weekend with an additional $5 million, bringing its domestic total to $284 million. Star Michael Keaton also had another film open this weekend — the father-daughter dramedy “Goodrich” which stumbled in with only $600,000 from 1,055 locations.
Rounding out the top five was the romantic tearjerker “We Live In Time,” which expanded to 985 theaters following last weekend's debut on 5 screens. The A24 release starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh earned $4.2 million over the weekend. Audiences were 85% under 35 and 70% female, according to exit polls. The well-reviewed film will expand further next weekend.
One of the other brightest spots of the weekend was Sean Baker’s “Anora,” which opened in six locations in New York and Los Angeles and earned an estimated $630,000. That’s a $105,000 per theater average, the best since “Asteroid City’s” $142,000 average last summer. The Neon release, a sensation at Cannes and a likely Oscar contender, stars Mikey Madison as a New York sex worker who falls for the son of a Russian oligarch.
After several weeks of would-be awards contenders and buzzy films (“Piece by Piece,” “Saturday Night,” “The Apprentice” among them) fizzling with audiences, “Anora’s” success is a promising sign that moviegoers will still seek out arty, adult fare.
"For moviegoers, there’s a lot on offer with something in every type of movie in every category," Dergarabedian said. “I think we’re going to have a really strong home stretch with a great combination of movies big and small.”
The Walt Disney Co. also made a splash with several re-releases. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” got a place in the top 10 with $1.1 million, while “Hocus Pocus” made $841,000.
Next weekend will have a major studio comic book movie with “Venom: The Last Dance” as well as an awards movie in the papal thriller “Conclave" vying for audience attention.

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

Cate Blanchett Wants You to Laugh at Politics in ‘Rumours’

Cate Blanchett poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Rumours" during the London Film Festival on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in London. (AP)
Cate Blanchett poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Rumours" during the London Film Festival on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in London. (AP)
TT
TT

Cate Blanchett Wants You to Laugh at Politics in ‘Rumours’

Cate Blanchett poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Rumours" during the London Film Festival on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in London. (AP)
Cate Blanchett poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Rumours" during the London Film Festival on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in London. (AP)

You’d be hard pressed to find an upcoming film weirder than “Rumours.”

The biting commentary on the emptiness of political statements and the performances politicians put on starts off as a straight political satire focusing on the G7 world leaders, but then slips into a world of slow-yet-terrifying zombies; a mysterious, giant brain found in the middle of a forest with unexplained origins; and an AI chatbot bent on entrapment.

It goes from provocative to absurd within a few short scenes, with the G7 leaders no longer the subject of criticism, but the butt of the joke.

And that’s kind of the whole point, according to its star and executive producer, Cate Blanchett.

“We’re all in such a state of heightened anxiety and fear with what’s going on with climate, what’s going on with the global political situation. We feel like we’re on the precipice of a world war and there’s a lot of people in positions of power who seem to be relishing that moment,” Blanchett told The Associated Press.

She plays a fictional chancellor of Germany named Hilda Orlmann, the host of the conference who's more focused on optics than action.

“I think the audience will come to it with a need for some kind of catharsis. And because the film is ridiculous and terrifying ... I think they’ll be able to laugh at the absurdity of the situation we found ourselves in. I think it’s a very generous film in that way,” she said.

The three directors, Guy Maddin and brothers Evan and Galen Johnson, said they wanted the film to feel like it had a “generic wash of political disrespect” and to include some resonant critiques, but they didn’t want viewers to feel like they were leaving a lecture hall as they walked out of the theater.

“I’m preachy enough when I talk to people. I don’t want to make a movie that’s preachy, you know? I just favor movies that aren’t that. That just hit me with a little mystery of ... ‘What are you doing or seeing? What am I experiencing?’” Evan Johnson, who wrote the script, as well as co-directed, said.

As for the more absurd plotlines, Maddin said he and his collaborators share “a compulsion to come up with an original recipe.”

And original it certainly is. In its straightforward opening act, leaders from the Group of 7 meet for their annual summit and try to draft a provisional statement for an unnamed crisis. Then, as the evening goes on and they struggle to string together a couple, meaningful sentences, they find themselves abandoned and subject to attack from “bog people,” or well-preserved mummified bodies from thousands of years ago. Hijinks — and hilarity — ensue from there.

Nikki Amuka-Bird, who plays the fictionalized British Prime Minister Cardosa Dewindt, said that while reading the script, she kept asking herself, “What’s happening?” But the ridiculous plotline — including the apocalyptic invasion of zombie-like “bog people” — was only part of the reason why she took on the project.

“This kind of total courage to genre splice in this way takes away any kind of apprehension or fear you might have about it because their (the directors’) tongues are firmly in their cheeks the whole time,” Amuka-Bird said. “It’s a really imaginative exercise and it’s just fantastic to work with directors who can be that bold and take chances like that.”

The cast is rounded out by a starry ensemble: Roy Dupuis is a melodramatic Canadian prime minister, Charles Dance is an American president with an inexplicable British accent, Denis Ménochet is a paranoid French president and Alicia Vikander makes an appearance as a frenetic leader from the European Commission.

The title of the movie, Blanchett said, is meant to invoke the revered Fleetwood Mac album of the same name, which was made at a time when the bandmembers were reportedly “all sleeping together and bickering and breaking up,” she said.

“What was surprising about it is you think, ‘OK, this is a film about the G7,’ but it’s like a sort of a daytime soap opera with these sort of trysts and liaisons and petty squabbles,” Blanchett said. “It was such an unusual way to look at the mess we’re all in and the leadership that’s led us here.”