Paramount horror Smile heads the new releases at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, looking to benefit from a marketing campaign that has combined innovative and traditional methods.
US filmmaker Parker Finn’s feature debut is adapted from the idea used in his 2020 short Laura Hasn’t Slept, which won a special jury award at SXSW.
Opening in 518 sites, Smile stars Sosie Bacon as a doctor who witnesses a traumatic incident involving a patient; then begins to experience frightening occurrences that she can’t explain, involving smiling faces. Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey, Robin Weigert and Kal Penn star alongside Bacon.
The film debuted at US genre event Fantastic Fest last week, ahead of its worldwide rollout this weekend. It has already grossed £392,000 through two days of previews in the UK and Ireland.
With a reported $17m budget, the film has employed some original marketing techniques, including placing actors copying the creepy smile from the film in camera-friendly positions in crowds at US sports games. A poster featuring Stasey’s face in the titular grin also has a widespread presence on buses in the UK and Ireland.
Although they rarely challenge the top grosses partly due to their ratings (Smile is 18-rated in the UK and Ireland), horror and thriller titles offer the potential for low-cost, high-yield box office results.
The highest-grossing film from the genre since the pandemic began is another Paramount title, sequel A Quiet Place Part II, which opened to £3.6m in June 2021, ending on £11.8m. Other horrors to have performed well in this time include Warner Bros’ The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (opened: £2.7m; closed: £9.6m); Paramount’s Scream (£2.5m; £7.6m); and Universal’s Candyman (£1.1m; £5.2m), although the franchise status of the top three does indicate the challenge in getting an audience for new material.
Manville moment
Aiming at a very different audience, Universal is starting Anthony Fabian’s comedy-drama Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris in 668 sites this weekend.
Based on Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel of the same name (although published as Flowers For Mrs Harris in the UK), the film follows a widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London who falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides she must have one of her own.
Lesley Manville has received praise and initial awards talk for her lead role, with a supporting cast including Isabelle Huppert, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Jason Isaacs and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2019 Rose Williams.
It is a fourth feature for UK filmmaker Fabian, who also produced the film through his Elysian Films – a different company from Elysian Film Group, the firm set up in 2018 by former Studiocanal UK CEO Danny Perkins.
Curzon is starting Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet in 34 locations this weekend. The film premiered in the Encounters sidebar at the Berlinale this year, before a festival run that has included Seattle, Poland’s New Horizons and Edinburgh.
Starring Asa Butterfield, Gwendoline Christie and Ariane Labed, the film is set in an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance, where a collective finds itself embroiled in power struggles, artistic vendettas, and gastrointestinal disorders.
It is a fifth feature for UK filmmaker Strickland, an arthouse favourite whose previous films have debuted in Berlinale competition, at Edinburgh and at Toronto.
His highest-grossing title to date is The Duke Of Burgundy, which opened to £43,155 in February 2015 on its way to a £169,371 total; all five of his features have been released by Curzon.
Strickland’s films have scored 19 nominations and four wins at the British Independent Film Awards, but are yet to receive a Bafta nomination.
Vertigo Releasing is opening Alli Haapasalo’s Girls Girls Girls (called Girl Picture in many territories) in 21 sites. The romantic drama follows three young women who try to defy the persistent winter darkness in Finland as they move between dreams, reality, friendships and relationships.
The film premiered at the online Sundance Film Festival in January, winning the audience award in the World Cinema – Dramatic section; and went on to play in the Generation 14+ section at the Berlinale.
Further new titles include Munro Films documentary Love Around The World, playing in three showings across two sites; Dogwoof documentary Midwives in two locations; Anime Ltd’s fantasy animation Inu-Oh; Apple’s Toronto title The Greatest Beer Run Ever; and Studio Soho Distribution’s A Bird Flew In.
Weekend-on-weekend takings increased for the first time in almost two months at the UK-Ireland box office weekend; cinemas will hope that holdovers including Don’t Worry Darling, Ticket To Paradise and Moonage Daydream can pair with the new titles for another improved performance.
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