Smile is beating up Bros at the weekend box office

Maybe chalk it up to the onset of that particular time of year known—obsessively—to the online set as “Spooky Season,” but new horror thriller Smile is apparently on track to win this weekend’s theatrical box office. Per Variety, Parker Finn’s film is set to bring in $19 million from moviegoers this weekend, recovering its entire $17 million budget in one fell swoop, and making it the biggest box office performer of the week. The film stars Sosie Bacon—who’s been getting strong reviews for the performance, including a recent shout-out from Stephen King—as a psychologist who becomes haunted by a mysterious curse after witnessing a patient’s suicide.

Among other things, that $19 million figure puts Smile well ahead of the other big opener this weekend: The Billy Eichner-led Bros, which is currently projected to score $4.7 million from rom-com fans. As Variety notes, the film—which has gotten almost universally positive reviews from critics, including an A- from our own Leigh Monson—doesn’t have a huge mountain to climb if it wants to make up its $22 million budget, but that’s still not an especially good start. (Whether the weak opening can be more attributed to possible audience hesitation at a rare studio romantic comedy focused on two gay men, or just the general financial woes of the rom-com genre generally, is initially kind of hard to say.)

Bros will likely end up coming in fourth for the weekend, trailing behind the second and third weeks, respectively, for Don’t Worry Darling and The Woman King. Both films had fairly standard box office drops as their time in theaters extended, although Viola Davis’ action movie is holding steadier than Olivia Wilde’s buzzy sci-fi thriller.