“Smile 2” arrives in theaters to excellent reviews, a little name recognition in its cast and a proven “brand” whose previous installment opened at $22 million, but soared onward and upward and cleared $105 million in North America alone.

Paramount HAD to figure the horror audience would show uo opening night and turn this into a blockbuster, that, the fans of the first film would be champing at the bit for a pre-Halloween horror pic that isn’t generic, low-budget or what have you.

“Smile 2” doesn’t look like it’s in the same medium as the more malnourished “Terrifier” franchise, for instance. It’s on a whole other plane than “Beezel,” a no-budget witch thriller of equally recent vintage.

But the second “Smile” is opening to the same decent but not overwhelming ticket-buying response that the first film enjoyed — $23 million by midnight Sunday, according to the studio tally sent to @thenumbers.

The simplest explanation for this underwhelming turnout (big brand horror films have opened in the $27-35 range) is that they didn’t wait long enough to release it. The original film left theaters maybe 20 months ago. And it’s been streaming ever since.

Paramount needed the cash, I guess.

“The Wild Robot” continues to rake it in, more of a steady hit for Dreamworks than a season-saving blockbuster. It’s over $100 million. Finally. Big animated pictures typically reach that mark in their first week or so. It’s good enough to deserve better. It earned $10.1 million this weekend.

“Terrifier 3” continues to give hope that the horror audience hasn’t vanished, it’s just gotten more obsessed with obscure titles that they figure their peers aren’t cool enough to have discovered. It’s heading towards a $9.3 million second weekend, a very respectable “hold” considering it opened at $18, almost as much as “Smile” or “Smile 2.”

The nostalgic wallow “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is adding another $5 million, inching it closer to $300 million. It’s not half the film “Wild Robot” is, but there you go.

The Andrew Garfield/Florence Pugh A24 drama “We Live in Time” opened to a very respectable $4 million on far fewer screens than “Smile 2.” That one I’ll have to catch later this weekend, I hope.

The respectable but underwhelming Michael Keaton/Mila Kunis dramedy “Goodrich” didn’t crack the top five, even if it earned slightly better reviews than “We Live in Time.”

“Piece by Piece” and “The Apprentice” are good pictures that can’t find an audience, and are fading and will start shedding screens any minute now.

As always, I’ll update these figures as more data comes in.