To the five players that brilliantly selected Backrooms (thanks to an improbable $81M opening), this pool is yours for the taking as long as you also selected The Devil Wears Prada 2 (now at $209M). It’s only been five weekends of the SMP and we already have FOUR movies on pace to finish at $100M+. In fact, at least two are tracking $200M+. And no, Mandalorian and Grogu is not one of them. There are still nine more ‘major’ movies (selected by 10+ players) to be released, so we’ve got some real excitement ahead of us.
We cannot say enough about Backrooms. This is a movie that at the time of picks cutoff was tracking at just a $14M-27M opening, with a likely total of $39M. No surprise at all for an atmospheric-thriller-horror flick that would already be the fourth horror release of the summer. How a $20M opening became $81M in less than a month’s time is unfathomable. That total ($81.4M to be exact) was only $300K from beating Mando ($81.67M) for the largest three-day opening of the summer. Its average theater gross of $23,649 certainly beat Mando’s ($18,993). What’s most curious is that despite the RT critic reviews of 89%/83%, the Verified Audience (74%) and CinemaScore (B-) results really should have made for a different result. This is definitely a curveball for the SMP.
And for those keeping track, Obsession just cracked $100M with another $27M in its third weekend (+14.3%). This comes after a second weekend of $23M (+39.3%). Horror movies aren’t supposed to go UP weekend after weekend lol.
Top 10 IN
- #4 Backrooms
- #10 The Breadwinner
Top 10 OUT
- Top Gun/Top Gun: Maverick 2026 Re-Release (Top Gun 40th Anniversary)
- Animal Farm
Next Weekend: The action evidently did NOT die down last weekend as expected, and with four new Wide releases including a head-to-head player-pick battle, it’s only going to heat up. 22 players picked Scary Movie (currently tracking at $41M-52M), 13 picked Masters of the Universe ($25M-35M), and 4 picked both. Bring it on!