Shark or no shark, it looks like audiences could just not stay out of the water this weekend. The Meg opened big, easily surpassing estimates by taking in $44.5 million in its first weekend. The film—which sees noted marine biologist Jason Statham taking on a massive prehistoric shark—knocked Tom Cruise back down to second place, as Mission: Impossible - Fallout nabbed $20 million in its third weekend.

A big shark comes with a big price tag for Warner Bros., though. The Meg's reported budget is $130 million, a number that the studio will need audiences overseas to show up for in order to pay for all that Megalodon action. On the other hand, The Meg is a movie in which Jason Statham fights a dinosaur shark, and if the world doesn't want to spend money on that then maybe it truly is too late for humanity.

Elsewhere, Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman opened strong, raking in $10.8 million over 1,500 locations, good enough for fifth place. That number is the auteur's biggest opening in decades, a fact sweetened by an A- CinemaScore. Fellow newcomer Slender Man—Sony's horror film with the terrifying premise of "remember 2011?"—opened in fourth place to $11.3 million, a more-than-respectable number considering its budget was $10 million.

As far as animals go: Sharks? Yes. Dogs? Apparently not. LD Entertainment's Dog Days—a romantic comedy directed by Ken Marino and starring Vanessa Hudgens, Eva Longoria, and a few canine co-stars—opened straight to the pound with $2.63 million.

Check out the full weekend estimates below, and be back here next weekend to see if Mark Wahlberg's action thriller Mile 22 can be more than Option 3 at the box office.