Can Jack Black Win the Weekend Box-Office Race?
by EG
The House with a Clock in Its Walls is likely to be the weekend's top movie, despite a forecast has it taking in less than $20 million. That might be enough to get past last week's number-one movie, or it might not. Read on for predictions.
Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment looks to clean the competition's clock this weekend with The House With a Clock in Its Walls, a fantasy adventure about a young orphan who goes to live with his spooky uncle that stars Jack Black and Cate Blanchett.
Directed by Eli Roth, the family film is tracking to top the chart with $18 million-$20 million for Amblin and partner Universal. The movie, based on the classic book written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey, will play in roughly 3,300 theaters.
With the fall awards season underway, a flurry of more specialized films also open nationwide this weekend.
Michael Moore's satirical, anti-Trump documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 — hoping to galvanize moviegoers in the lead-up to the midterm elections, as well as participate in the box-office doc boom — is tracking to open in the $5 million-$8 million range from 1,719 cinemas.
In 2004, Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 debuted to a record-breaking $23.9 million from 868 locations. Otherwise, most of his films, similar to other political or issue-driven docs, have opened first in select theaters before slowly expanding their footprint.
Fahrenheit 11/9 marks the first release from Tom Ortenberg's new company, Briarcliff. (Ortenberg worked with Moore on Fahrenheit 9/11 when stationed at Lionsgate.)
Sam Levinson's satire-thriller Assassination Nation likewise braves the waters, months after specialty distributor Neon partnered with the Russo brothers in ponying up a reported $10 million for rights to the black comedy upon the film's premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
The ensemble film follows a group of teenage girls who must save their small town of Salem after a data hack exposes everyone's dirty little secrets. Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, Bella Thorne, Abra, Anika Noni Rose, Colman Domingo, Maude Apatow and Joel McHale star.
Assassination Nation is tracking for a launch of around $4 million.
Also debuting is Life Itself, a dramedy from Amazon Studios that is directed by This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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