Weekend Box Office: House With a Clock in Its Walls Tops Slower Weekend

By Chris Kavan - 09/23/18 at 10:16 PM CT

While this weekend wasn't the worst in 2018, it was low enough to make the top three. Good news is that Jack Black's A House with a Clock in Its Walls did better than expected, but that was countered by the other three wide release films all under performing. Add in the precipitous drop for The Predator, and it was a perfect storm of audience apathy. I'm not sure if things are going to get much better, so, for now, it's just going to be a wait-and-see kind of thing.

1) THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

Maybe Eli Roth has found his new calling with more family-friendly fare rather than gore-tastic movies. The House with a Clock in Its Wall, starring Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Kyle MacLachlan and Owen Vaccaro opened to a very nice $26.85 million - well above most estimations which had it pegged in the lower $20 million range. That is above the $23.6 million opening of Goosebumps (also starring Black) and just below the $28.8 million opening of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. However, The House with a Clock in Its Walls also cost just $40 million, below the $58 million of Goosebumps and well below the $110 million for Peculiar Children. The film earned a "B+" Cinemascore, below the "A" of Goosebumps, but that shouldn't hurt it much. For family-friendly titles with a Halloween bent, this should play well through October. If the film plays like either of the previous films, both which had a 3x to 3.3x multiplier, this House should be looking at a total in the $85-$90 million range. Unknown is how much of a factor the IMAX 3D version of Michael Jackson's classic Thriller contributed to its $2.5 million IMAX opening, but it certainly couldn't have hurt.

2) A SIMPLE FAVOR

Paul Feig's crime/thriller dipped a light 35% in its second weekend, helping it jump to second place in the process with $10.4 million and a new total of $32.5 million. That second-week hold, by the way, is better than the likes of The Shallows, Ocean’s 8, Girls Trip and Trainwreck. Good word-of-mouth surrounding this title, along with its hook, is helping it reel in interested audiences and it should be able to parlay this good will into at least a $60 million total. That's on the domestic front alone, as A Simple Favor has earned $10 million overseas, with plenty more territories to come. All told, Feig, like Roth, seems to have found success in a very different format and maybe that means good things for the future.

3) THE NUN

Dropping 44%, The Nun became the fourth film in The Conjuring franchise to top $100 million with a $10.25 million weekend a new $100.9 million total. It will have no problem topping both The Conjuring 2 and Annabelle: Creation to become the second highest-total film in the series, winding up just below the $137.4 million of the original Conjuring. It also added $35.4 million overseas, the highest-grossing film of the week, where it now stands at $292.6 million global, and it should be able to rise up the charts of The Conjuring franchise in this spot as well, setting sights on the $306.5 million of Annabelle 2 next. All told, The Nun is a good indication that even though it may not have been the highest-rated film in the series, people don't seem to care and want a decent horror franchise to get behind and, for right now, The Conjuring is it.

4) THE PREDATOR

After a disappointing opening last weekend, despite its number one spot, The Predator suffered a rather precipitous second-week drop of 64.7%, with just $8.7 million for the weekend and a new total of $40.43 million. That is still less than half its $88 million budget, and even with $94.97 million worldwide, the film might very well struggle to make a profit. It's looking a lot like the whole Aliens and Predator thing has ran its course and it might be time to bid both franchises a fond farewell. Much like Alien: Covenant, it seems the audience has moved on and that should mean the studio should do the same. No direct-to-streaming options - just let it go and focus on something original. I know it's hard to do in this age of reboots, re-imaginings and sequels, but in the long run it should pay off.

5) CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Rounding out the top five once again, Crazy Rich Asians dipped just 25%, adding another $6.5 million to its total, which now stands at $159.4 million. That moves it up to seventh place all-time among romantic comedies and it will soon pass The Proposal ($163.95 million) to move up to sixth place. It is also the biggest romantic comedy since Hitch (back in 2013) and one of the biggest August comedies on record (recently passing We're the Millers $150 million). All in all, the $30 million production is a huge hit, with an additional $47 million international icing on the cake. Even if China passes on this one, it's still going to be one of the year's best cost-to-gross comparisons, made even more impressive by the all-Asian cast.

Outside the top five: The rosy outlook ends here, folks, as we're getting into the more depressing territory. Michael Moore didn't find much love for Fahrenheit 11/9, which had to settle for and eighth-place $3.1 million opening. While that is the 15th best opening for a documentary, the rather paltry $1,804 per-theater average is worrying. This is case of a film that probably should have been a more limited release. But, hey, at least it topped the $2.35 million opening of Death of a Nation, even if it's not going to do much better in the long run. Still, it will become the highest-grossing Moore documentary since 2009 (when Capitalism: A Love Story earned $14.3 million), but it's a small consolation prize.

Following withering reviews and general lack of marketing, Amazon Studios Life Itself couldn't crack the top 10, with just $2.1 million in 11th place. That is the second-worst opening for a film opening on 2500 or more screens (coming in barely under the $2 million of Friend Request) and an awful $806 per-theater average. Despite a good cast (Oscar Isaac, Olivia Cooke, Annette Bening, Mandy Patinkin and Antonio Banderas among them). But it's Amazon, and I'm sure they're not too worried - Prime viewers will be able to watch this in a matter of months and director Dan Fogelman is sure to move on to bigger and better things.

A frankly awesome premise (Heathers meets The Purge) couldn't help Assassination Nation drum up much business. In fact, I was under the impression it was going to go limited and thus didn't even mention it in my write-up. It probably should have, as the over-the-top, but highly topical film, earned just $1.028 million (15th place) and a mere $733 per-theater average. The likely future cult classic may have tried too hard to be edgy but I'm hoping this means I'll be able to catch it on streaming sooner rather than later, because it looks right up my alley.

No other milestones to talk about this weekend, but next week brings us the animated Smallfoot, the comedy Night School, horror film Hell Fest and contemporary updated Little Women.

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