In its debut, Clint Eastwood's Sully easily wins the weekend frame at the box office with over $35.5 million. That's not so surprising considering Tom Hank's continues to be a solid box office draw, especially when playing real-life heroes like that of the titular Captain Chesley Sullenberger. What is surprising is that, in all of Eastwood's 35 feature film directorial credits, the only one that has topped $18 million in its opening weekend had been 2000's Space Cowboys. Sully nearly doubled that in its debut frame.

What remains to be seen is whether or not Sully has the legs to place the film as one of Eastwood's top total earners ever. That's a tough task considering Eastwood's top film, American Sniper, tore through cinemas in 2014 to the tune of $350 million domestically and well over half-a-billion dollars worldwide. Eastwood also has a trio of $100-million-plus earners domestically, including Gran Torino, Unforgiven, and Million Dollar Baby in descending order. With a $35.5 million start, $100 million is certainly in reach, but its performance will depend on the next few weeks of competition.

---

The rest of September sees a number of possible box office surprises like the new installment of Blair Witch--horror movies have a habit of debuting big when there's buzz preceding their debut--and the Mark Wahlberg-starring Deepwater Horizon. There's also an animated film that could take a sizable chunk out of the box office pie: Warner Bros. Animation's Storks. There's also Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children to contend with, but Burton's openings have been anything but box-office-busting lately, so we'll have to wait and see how audiences respond to his latest adaptation.

Check out the weekend's Top 10 below (via Box Office Mojo):

---