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The Clock Strikes No. 1

Intrepid Plugged In reviewer Bob Hoose said of The House With a Clock in Its Walls, “One can only hope that wise parents are scared away from this freaky flick … long before their kids are.”

Nearly $27 million-worth of folks—parents, children and otherwise—ignored Mr. Hoose’s sage advice and went to see this not-so-kid-friendly fright flick. It earned an estimated $26.9 million in North America to snag a convincing weekend win at the box office, more than doubling the take of its nearest competitor.

Not that it was a particularly hard weekend to win. Everything except Clock struggled, it seems: In fact, Box Office Mojo says it was one of the weakest weekends of the year.

Of the four wide releases this week, only Clock managed to even crack the top five. Holdovers ruled, with the sophomore flick A Simple Favor leading the charge. The mystery earned $10.4 million. That was just a fearsome thread ahead of The Nun, which finished third with nearly $10.3 million. The Nun has now cleared $100.9 million in North America, making it the fourth of the five movies in The Conjuring series to crack nine figures.

The Predator, last Monday’s champ, turned prey this weekend—cowering somewhere in the jungle with the $8.7 million it earned, finishing fourth. Crazy Rich Asians closed out the top five for the second-straight week, collecting $6.5 million.

We don’t come across another new release ’til No. 8, where Fahrenheit 11/9, Michael Moore’s latest documentary/political statement, lurks. It collected about $3.1 million—not bad for your typical doc, but more than $20 million off the pace Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 set in its opening weekend 14 years ago.

Life Itself suffered an ignominious death at the box office, registering just $2.1 million to settle into 11th. But it still suffered a kinder fate than Assassination Nation. The angry, insanely graphic thriller got gunned down in the box-office streets, earning just $1 million to finish 15th.