‘The House With a Clock in its Walls’ to Win Opening Weekend at the Box Office

Jack Black’s latest magical adventure is headed to the top of this weekend’s box office.

The House With a Clock in its Walls is set to open as the number one movie in North America. The film is expected to bring in $20-25 million in its first three days. Projections had the film pegged for $18-20 million from 3,500 locations.

The House With a Clock in its Walls earned $7 million on Friday, including $840,00 from Thursday night previews.

The Universal and Amblin film is an adaptation of the 1973 novel of the same name by John Bellairs. The returns are comparable to Black’s previous fantastical book-to-film adaptation Goosebumps, which earned $23.6 million when it opened in 2016.

The story of The House With a Clock in its Walls follows a 10-year-old boy named Lewis, played in the film by Owen Vaccaro. Lewis goes to live with his eccentric uncle Jonathan Barnavelt, played by Black. Uncle Jonathan’s house is peculiar in that it has a ticking heart. Cate Blanchett also stars as Jonathan’s neighbor Florence Zimmerman, a witch.

The House With a Clock in its Walls marks director Eli Roth’s first foray into PG-rated filmmaking. He’s best known for R-rated horror movies like Cabin Fever and Hostel.

Last weekend’s chart-topper, The Predator, slips downwards. It will be in a close race for third place with The Nun, the latest installment of The Conjuring horror franchise. Both films are expected to earn around $8 million for the weekend. The Nun set a new opening weekend high bar for The Conjuring franchise. The Predator failed to top its predecessor and is struggling to make up its $88 million budget.

Keep reading to see the full list of the top ten movies at the box office this weekend.

What are you going to see in theaters this weekend? Let us know in the comments!

1. The House With a Clock in its Walls

Opening Weekend
Friday: $7.7 million
Weekend: $24.9 million

Ten-year-old Lewis goes to live with his oddball uncle in a creaky old house that contains a mysterious ticktock noise. He soon learns that Uncle Jonathan and his feisty neighbor, Mrs. Zimmerman, are powerful practitioners of the magic arts. When Lewis accidentally awakens the dead, the town’s sleepy facade suddenly springs to life — revealing a secret and dangerous world of witches, warlocks and deadly curses.

Based on the 1973 novel by John Bellairs, The House With a Clock in its Walls is directed by Eli Roth and stars based on the 1973 novel of the same name by John Bellairs and stars Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sunny Suljic, and Kyle MacLachlan. 

2. A Simple Favor

Week Two
Friday: $3.3 million
Weekend: $10.5 million
Total: $32.7 million

A Simple Favor, directed by Paul Feig, centers around Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a mommy vlogger who seeks to uncover the truth behind her best friend Emily’s (Blake Lively) sudden disappearance from their small town.

Based on Darcey Bell’s 2017 novel of the same name, the film also stars  Henry Golding and Andrew Rannells.

3. The Nun

Week Three
Friday: $2.9 million
Weekend: $9.2 million
Total: $99.8 million

When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together, they uncover the order’s unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.

The Nun is directed by Corin Hardy and written by Gary Dauberman, based on a story by Dauberman and James Wan. The film stars Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, and Jonas Bloquet.

4. The Predator

Week Two
Friday: $2.4 million
Weekend: $7.9 million
Total: $39.6 million

From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home. The universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and an evolutionary biologist can prevent the end of the human race.

The film stars Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen and Sterling K. Brown. The film is directed by Shane Black.

5. Crazy Rich Asians

Week Six
Friday: $1.8 million
Weekend: $6.1 million
Total: $159 million

Rachel Chu is happy to accompany her longtime boyfriend, Nick, to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. She’s also surprised to learn that Nick’s family is extremely wealthy and he’s considered one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. Thrust into the spotlight, Rachel must now contend with jealous socialites, quirky relatives and something far, far worse — Nick’s disapproving mother.

Crazy Rich Asians is adapted from the novel written by Kevin Kwan. The film is directed by Jon M. Chu and stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Nico Santos, Lisa Lu, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh.

6. White Boy Rick

Week Two
Friday: $1.5 million
Weekend: $4.9 million
Total: $17.3 million

Rick Wershe is a single father who’s struggling to raise two teenagers during the height of the crack epidemic in 1980s Detroit. Wershe sells guns illegally to make ends meet but soon attracts attention from the FBI. Federal agents convince his son, Rick Jr., to become an undercover drug informant in exchange for keeping his father out of prison. When young Rick gets in too deep, he finds himself seduced by the lure of easy money and becomes a drug dealer himself.

Based on a true story, White Boy Rick is directed by Yann Demange and written by Andy Weiss, Logan Miller, and Noah Miller. The film star Richie Merritt, Matthew McConaughey, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Tyree Henry, Rory Cochrane, RJ Cyler, Jonathan Majors, Eddie Marsan, Bruce Dern, and Piper Laurie.

7. Peppermint

Week Three
Friday: $925,000
Weekend: $3.2 million
Total: $29.8 million

Riley North awakens from a coma after surviving a brutal attack that killed her husband and daughter. When the system shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerrilla. Channeling frustration into motivation, the young widow spends years in hiding — honing her mind, body and spirit to become an unstoppable force. Eluding the underworld, the police and the FBI, Riley embarks on a deadly quest to deliver her own personal brand of punishment.

Peppermint is directed by Pierre. The film stars Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr., Juan Pablo Raba, and Tyson Ritter,

8. Fahrenheit 11/9

Opening Weekend
Friday: $1.1 million
Weekend: $3 million

Filmmaker Michael Moore predicted that Donald Trump would become the 45th president of the United States. Traveling across the country, Moore interviews American citizens to get a sense of the social, economic and political impact of Trump’s victory. Moore also takes an in-depth look at the media, the Electoral College, the government agenda and his hometown of Flint, Mich.

9. Life Itself

Opening Weekend
Friday: $782,000
Weekend: $2.1 million

As a young New York couple go from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.

Life Itself is directed by Dan Fogelman and stars Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Annette Bening, and Antonio Banderas.

10. The Meg

Week Seven
Friday: $556,000
Weekend: $2 million
Total: $140.2 million

A massive creature attacks a deep-sea submersible, leaving it disabled and trapping the crew at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. With time running out, rescue diver Jonas Taylor must save the crew and the ocean itself from an unimaginable threat — a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon.

The Meg is directed by Jon Turteltaub from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis.