Box Office: ‘Smile 2’ Grins With $23M Opening, ‘Anora’ Jolts Awards Race Awake

Paramount's horror-thriller sequel easily won the weekend, but still had to contend with competition from the indie slasher pic, 'Terrifier 3.'

Paramount and Temple Hill are grinning widely.

Their new movie, Smile 2, won the domestic box office race with an estimated $23 million from 3,619 theaters, including Imax and other premium large-format screens. That would put the film’s debut just ahead of the first Smile, a sleeper hit that opened to $22.6 million in late September 2022 on its way to grossing more than $217 million worldwide against a $17 million budget.

Overseas, the sequel likewise took in $23 million.