Well, at least Cate Blanchett is having a good weekend, and in the grand scheme of things that's really all that matters. The House with a Clock in Its Walls easily took the top spot at the box office this weekend, ticking past expectations to take in $26.8 million. Eli Roth's PG-spookshow shared the top 3 spots with holdovers A Simple Favor—down only 35% in its second weekend to land at $10.4 million—and The Nun, which scared up another $10.2 million.
That's it for the good news this weekend, folks, because the box office was downright dismal for a certain trio of buzzed-about festival films. Fahrenheit 11/9, the new documentary from Michael Moore—not Roger Moore, as I wrote yesterday, apologies Mr. Bond—tanked from the beginning, landing well below an expected $5-6 million tally to take in $3.1 million. Audiences who happened to catch the doc seemed to love it—the film currently has an A CinemaScore—but that doesn't soothe the fact that 11/9 brought in $20 million less than Fahrenheit 9/11's opening weekend in 2004.
Meanwhile, both Life Itself and Assassination Nation couldn't crack the top ten in their first weekend in theaters; heck, Assassination Nation just barely cracked the $1 million mark. Director Sam Levinson's bloody black comedy—starring Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, and Abra as a crew of vengeful teenage girls—ended its debut weekend with $1.03 million.
And Life Itself, poor, innocent Life Itself, which director Dan Fogelman did no favors by striking back at across-the-board terrible reviews (not counting Weird Al Yankovic) with the ol' "for the fans of manipulative storytelling, not the critics of manipulative storytelling" routine, nabbed a not-fantastic $2.1 million.
Check out the weekend's top 10 estimates below, and come back next week to see if Smallfoot can leave prints at the box office.
Rank |
Title |
Weekend |
Total |
1. |
The House with a Clock In Its Walls |
$26,850,000 |
$26,850,000 |
2. |
A Simple Favor |
$10,400,000 |
$32,562,414 |
3. |
The Nun |
$10,250,000 |
$100,895,307 |
4. |
The Predator |
$8,700,000 |
$40,435,122 |
5. |
Crazy Rich Asians |
$6,515,000 |
$159,439,483 |
6. |
White Boy Rick |
$5,000,000 |
$17,410,368 |
7. |
Peppermint |
$3,720,000 |
$30,332,559 |
8. |
Fahrenheit 11/9 |
$3,101,000 |
$3,101,000 |
9. |
The Meg |
$2,350,000 |
$140,522,919 |
10. |
Searching |
$2,175,000 |
$23,115,344 |