This weekend, Night School and Smallfoot go head to head for the top spot, although it likely will not be too close. Additionally, The House with a Clock in Its Walls will hope to hold well against the competition.
Tiffany Haddish reunites with her Girl’s Trip director Malcolm D. Lee and teams up with Kevin Hart for the PG-13 Night School. Reviews have been poor, with just a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that hasn’t been a major factor for Kevin Hart, who seems to be review-proof. His films Get Hard and Ride Along both opened in the $33-35 million range with even worse reviews. Last summer, Girl’s Trip opened with $31 million. This range seems to be reasonable for Night School, and even being slightly lower would be win, as the film only cost $29 million.
The animated Smallfoot will take second place. The PG film will likely open around Storks ($21m), which was also from Warner Bros., and Captain Underpants ($23m). There hasn’t been a major animated movie since Hotel Transylvania 3, although last week’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls did overperform.
Speaking of, Clock should be coming in third place, dropping about 50% for $13 million, which will be just enough to have its domestic gross surpass its $42 million budget. The film opened with $26.6 million last weekend, along with strong reviews. The Halloween theme should help it hold in the coming weeks, as long as Smallfoot doesn’t take away too much of its potential audience.
A Simple Favor should continue to hold well and take third with a likely 35% drop. It should make around $7 million, which will push it to nearly $43 million to date, making it a solid mid-range win for Lionsgate.
Fifth should go to The Nun, which is not holding very well. Another 45% drop will give it around $5.5 million for the weekend. Crazy Rich Asians shouldn’t be too far behind, likely pulling in another $4.3 million in its 7th weekend, as it remains one of the biggest success stories of the year.
The Predator should continue to embarrass itself, likely pulling in just around $4 million in its 3rd weekend, pushing its total to around $47 million without much gas left in the tank, a horrible performance for the poorly received $88 million dollar reboot.
Finally, Hell Fest opens in moderate release. There seems to be very little buzz for this movie and low awareness. There are no reviews yet, which is never a good sign. Comparisons are difficult, but among R-rated films released this year with similar theater counts, Action Point opened with $2.3, while Unsane opened with $3.7 million. As those films had, respectively, poor and strong reviews, they seem to be a good range for Hell Fest.
Predictions
Night School- $32 million
Smallfoot- $21 million
The House with a Clock in Its Walls– $13.5
A Simple Favor– $7 million
The Nun– $5.3 million
Crazy Rich Asians– $4.3
The Predator– $4.0 million
Hell Fest– $2.8 million
White Boy Rick– $2.5 million
Peppermint– $2.0
Film Central 