One might question the wisdom of releasing a PG-13 horror movie in the dog days of summer rather than the harvest-moonlit nights of autumn, but CBS Films, eOne, and Lionsgate already have a winner with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It easily won the opening Friday frame over fellow newcomers like Dora and the Lost City of Gold and existing films like Hobbs & Shaw, Disney's recent re-do of The Lion King, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood. Things are shaping up well for the family-focused horror film which should bring in $20+ million for the weekend. Hopefully it gets a Halloween-boost later this fall since it fits nicely in the niche between the R-rated IT: Chapter Two and the family-friendly animated The Addams Family.

Elsewhere, Paramount's Dora the Explorer big-screen adventure is taking its A CinemaScore to a $17+ million tally this weekend. Outside the top five is Fox's The Art of Racing in the Rain, which came in under $3 million on Friday and will struggle to clear $10 million this weekend despite an A- CinemaScore. Speaking of struggles, The Kitchen, from New Line and Warner Bros., will earn just about $5 million this weekend after a $1.8 million Friday estimate. It currently sits at just 21% on Rotten Tomatoes in a disconnect with audiences who put it somewhere in the C to B- range depending on your metrics. And while we'll be back with the Top 10 tomorrow, it's hard to tell if Bleecker Street's sports drama/biopic Brian Banks can crack it with an expected $2 million in earnings this weekend.

Here's a look at the Top 5 from Friday's estimates (courtesy of Box Office Mojo):

 

If you're on the fence about Scary Stories, check out our own Matt Goldberg's review here, and take a look at the synopsis below:

From the dark imaginations of Academy Award®-winner Guillermo del Toro and acclaimed director André Øvredal, based on the iconic book series, comes Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark — in theaters August 9th

 

It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.