Despite being one of the worst box office weekends this year, Universal’s new family feature from Eli Roth, The House with a Clock in its Walls, over-performed, bringing in an estimated $26.85 million.
Goes to show horror director Roth can make a film with no one getting maimed or losing their penis (looking at you Hostel 2) and bring in bucks. Incidentally, House managed to outperform star Jack Black’s other kid-friendly horror film, Goosebumps which took in $23.6 million in 2015.
Goosebumps did receive slightly better reviews and the “B+” CinemaScore for Clock is a bit below the “A” for Goosebumps so there’s no telling what will happen long term, but given the release timing of Clock it is positioned well to play throughout the Halloween season.
House with a Clock in Its Walls opened on 400 IMAX screens in North America, generating an estimated $2.5 million of the film’s opening weekend gross. Included with those showings was an exclusive IMAX 3D version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller(would have liked to have seen that).
comScore’s Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian commented, “Notably, Jack Black in Universal’s The House With A Clock In Its Walls opened this weekend at number one in North America with $26.85 million and in just 22 territories for a global total of $35.58 million.”
Coming in second is the strong hold from Lionsgate’s A Simple Favor. The thriller from Paul Feig and starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick dipped just 35% in its second weekend, pulling in an estimated $10.4 million for the three-day, pushing the film’s domestic cume to $32.56 million.
Warner Bros. and New Line’s The Nun dropped 44% this weekend, finishing with an estimated $10.2 million for the weekend as the film’s cume now tops $100 million domestically. The Nun is the fourth film in the Conjuring franchise to reach the century mark and it will soon become the second highest grossing film in the franchise, behind The Conjuring, which grossed $137.4 million domestically back in 2013.
Dergarabedian added, “Warner Bros.’ horror hit The Nun scares up another $45.65 million at the global box office for a worldwide total to date of nearly $300 million.”
As expected with mediocre reviews and the Shane Black/Olivia Munn drama, Fox’s The Predator took a steep dive from its pole position last weekend, dropping 65% this weekend for an estimated $8.7 million three-day.
The top 12 domestic weekend box office estimates, are below:
House With A Clock In Its Walls, The – Universal – $26.9M
Simple Favor, A – Lionsgate – $10.4M
Nun, The – Warner Bros. – $10.2M
Predator, The – 20th Century Fox – $8.7M
Crazy Rich Asians – Warner Bros. – $6.5M
White Boy Rick – Sony – $5.0M
Peppermint – STX Entertainment – $3.7M
Fahrenheit 11/9 – Briarcliff Entertainment – $3.1M
Meg, The – Warner Bros. – $2.4M
Searching – Sony – $2.2M
Life Itself – Amazon Studios – $2.1M
Unbroken: Path To Redemption – Pure Flix – $1.3M
The top 12 worldwide weekend box office estimates, are below:
Nun, The – Warner Bros. – $45.6M
House With A Clock In Its Walls, The – Multiple – $35.6M
Predator, The – 20th Century Fox – $24.0M
Golden Job – Multiple – $23.2M
Johnny English Strikes Again – Universal – $17.2M
Simple Favor, A – Lionsgate – $15.6M
Crazy Rich Asians – Warner Bros. – $11.6M
Mission: Impossible – Fallout – Paramount Pictures – $9.2M
L Storm – Multiple – $9.0M
Great Battle, The – Next Entertainment World – $8.9M
Incredibles 2 – Disney – $8.8M
Ash Is Purest White – Shanghai Film Group – $5.9M
Full details regarding the global domestic and international box office results are below:
Source: comScore
