The horror movie Smile did just that in the U.S., topping the box office; but not in Italy, where Paramount’s film debuted on the same weekend, grossing just $98.100 (same in Euros, virtually one/one with US dollars), placing only seventh in the top-10 grossing chart.

It was the evergreen couple George Clooney and Julia Roberts who smiled better with their romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise to dominate the Italian weekly box office earning $314.022 (and a weekly record of 43.735 viewers), with a total of $834.785 since its theatrical release last week.

On the podium, the second and third places are two Italian productions, Paolo Virzì’s Siccità, about a dystopian Rome afflicted by an apocalyptic drought ($143.730, and a total gross of $1,175.655), and veteran author Pupi Avati’s Dante ($127.4654, totaling close to $1 million since its release two weeks ago.

A historical drama set in 1350 Tuscany, Dante hinges on the figure of writer Giovanni Boccaccio (played by Sergio Castellitto) who has the honor to right the wrongs inflicted on the “sommo poeta” (maximum poet) Dante, who was forced into exile. The presence of two domestic films at the top of the box office is very good news for the Italian industry.

James Cameron‘s 2009 Avatar, re-released in theaters while waiting for Avatar 2 (in December), has held on nicely grossing $100.821 and a total of almost $3 million in a month of playing at the Italian theaters. Number 5 is Minions 2 – The Rise of Gru ($14.290 the past weekend, totaling $14.5 million, an excellent performance for Italian standards), followed at N.6 by another animated movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero ($98.000 and $1.3 million total).

Smile, as we said, was  number 7, followed at number 8 by Quasi Orfani, with Italian superstar Riccardo Scamarcio leading an ensemble in this remake of a French comedy ($61.081) and N.9 Everything Everywhere all at Once ($61.400), an eclectic mix of martial arts movie, fantasy, sci-fi, and animation. Closing at N.10 is DC League of Super Pets ($52.000).

This coming week there will be one only wide release in Italy, Halloween Ends, which is expected to both close the legendary horror saga and make a splash in theaters, making it foreseeable that two American horror pictures will reach the first two spots. In fact, observers are convinced that with Halloween closing up (it’s now celebrated also in Italy), young moviegoers will flock to theaters also for Smile, which will get a positive bump at the box office on the wave of the “boffo” business in the U.S.

Good news also for the local industry: there’s a boom of international productions filmed in Italy, including Alfonso Cuaron’s new film, Disclaimer, and the series Gabriel’s Inferno, directed by Tosca Musk, (sister of Tesla’s founder) both underway in Tuscany.  Cinecittà’s studios, sound stages, and a back lot are booked solid for the next several months.

In the meantime, on the streaming side, the platform Paramount + made its debut in Italy at the end of September ($9.99 monthly), raising a lot of interest among viewers constantly looking for alternatives to Netflix and the Sky universe, all the while pleasing cinephiles with its vast film catalog from the Paramount rich vault.