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 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, 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 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 and HELL FEST can leave prints at the box office:
1. The House with a Clock In Its Walls $26.85M
2. A Simple Favor $10.4M
3. The Nun $10.25M
4. The Predator $8.7M
5. Crazy Rich Asians $6.51M
6. White Boy Rick $5M
7. Peppermint $3.72M
8. Fahrenheit 11/9 $3.1M
9. The Meg $2.35M
10. Searching $2.17M
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