A good weekend for children’s fantasies, not so much for dramas and documentaries
A surprising number of people went the movie theater this weekend and they didn’t go see Shane Black’s The Predator, that’s for sure. The Predator fell 64% at the box office in one week, being bumped from the Number 1 spot to Number 4, and only making $8.7 million this week. The film has sparked a lot of controversy since it was outed that Black hired a registered sex offender, though it is unclear if this is the sole cause of the movie’s rapidly declining ticket sales.
Instead of Shane Black’s movie taking the top seat, he has handed the weekend crown over to another Black – Jack Black. Black stars in Eli Roth’s new film The House with a Clock in It’s Walls, an adaptation of a popular children’s fantasy book. The film follows Black as a warlock, teaching his young nephew magic until the two must ultimately defeat an evil warlock who has put a curse on the house Black lives in.
The House with a Clock in It’s Walls has gotten solidly decent reviews, with comments generally saying the movie is a fun blend of horror and children’s fantasy, with a classic Jack Black at the heart of it all. Unfortunately, this rave reviewing comes at a cost to Amazon Studios, the other company who released a film this weekend.
Audiences did not take as well to Dan Fogelman’s Life Itself, a romantic drama, released this weekend in 2,609 theaters across the country, but only pulling in 11th place in the box office with $2.1 million. The film was expected to do better by it’s creators, since Fogelman is the creator of “This is Us”, a huge hit show on NBC.
Backing up to the top of the list, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick star in the Number 2 seat film, A Simple Favor, a review of which you can find on Cinema Speak. The movie brought in $10.4 million this weekend, and found itself moving up from the Number 3 spot last weekend, its own opening weekend.
Bumped from that spot and down to the Number 3 seat is The Nun, with it’s third week in theaters, and making $10.3 million, just shy of staying in the Number 2 slot. The horror film has done quite well for itself, unlike the only other horror movie really on the market right now, The Predator.
Crazy Rich Asians has clutched the Number 5 seat for the second week in a row after earning $6.5 million. This is the films sixth week in theaters and is still doing very well for itself, especially with the incredible reviews and support it’s gotten.
The second half of the Top Ten list includes, respectively, White Boy Rick, a crime drama based on a true story, whose portrayal of the main characters has the family members of their real life counterparts in a rage. Peppermint, Jennifer Garner’s “revenge film”, which moved up one spot from last week. Fahrenheit 11/9, an anti-Trump documentary film which had a disappointing weekend since it was slated to bring in double what it actually did – only $3.1 million. In the Number 9 seat is The Meg which is shockingly still on this list after weeks and weeks in theaters, clutching $2.3 million this week, and $516.4 million worldwide since its release earlier this summer. Finally, clinging to the bottom of this list is Searching, a new John Cho film, after five weeks in theaters.
So what this really means is – Jack Black is making a solid comeback with movies like The House with a Clock in It’s Walls and Jumanji, and one probably shouldn’t hire sex offenders for films they hope will be popular because people don’t seem to like to support those people.
Cinema Speak 
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