It was not, it must be said, the busiest weekend at the Stateside box office, at least in terms of business. While festival indie releases – even those boasting well-known backers – collapsed, it was left to The House With A Clock In Its Walls to take the top spot, earning $26.8 million, according to studio estimates.
Eli Roth's family-friendly horror adventure was among the more commercial of the new releases, and it easily won out over some struggling competition. A Simple Favour had a good weekend, actually jumping up one place from third to second with $10.4 million. The Nun swapped with it, dropping to third on $10.2 million, but staying successful, crossing the $100 million mark domestically.
Last week's champ, The Predator, suffered a 64% drop in business and fell to fourth, making $8.7 million as it dropped to fourth. Crazy Rich Asians continued to do business, adding $6.5 million in fifth.
Sixth place was true-life tale White Boy Rick on $5 million, ahead of revenge thriller Peppermint, which earned $3.7 million. But you have to look down as far as eighth to find the week's second new arrival as usually reliable satirical docu-maker Michael Moore saw his latest, Trump-focused Fahrenheit 11/9, take in just $3.1 million. The Meg sank to ninth with $2.3 million. Finally, Searching was at 10th and $2.17 million.
You have to peek below the top 10 to find two other new arrivals, as Life Itself, from Dan Fogelman (creator of telly hit This Is US) was castigated by critics and saw little audience interest, earning just $2.1 million in 11th. And that's despite opening on more than 2,000 screens. Even worse was violent social media lynch mob satire Assassination Nation, which launched in 15th and made $1 million.
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