One timely release manages to freeze out Michael Moore’s hot takes.

This segment of the calendar for Hollywood has proven a mixed bag in recent years. Long a doldrum segment, as studios dumped poor quality efforts before the holidays, with plenty of lagging attempt and the occasional horror breakout, recent years has seen some quality creeping in.
Last year had “It” exploding and setting records. Also “Geostorm” managed to leave a crater around this time as well. Any given week can deliver surprises and disappointments, and this week managed to do both. As a family pic managed to find its audience a collection of new arrivals were all basically ignored. Here are the results of the last September weekend.

THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS – – $26.8 Million
There were modest expectations with this children’s adventure yarn but the weekend was actually healthier than anticipated. A decent Friday gave way to a more generous Saturday matinee crowd as the curious kids turned out. Adapted from the book series by John Bellairs it was directed by Eli Roth, who dips into children’s fare for the first time and ends up with the largest opening of his career.

2. A SIMPLE FAVOR – $10.4m
Taking a decent -35% drop in week two the adult thriller is not embarrassing itself by disappearing in the same fashion as its lead female.

3. THE NUN – $10.25m
The extension of the horror franchise “The Conjuring” has been very successful as it has crossed the $100 million mark in its third weekend, and should pass up the best title in the series, “Annabelle”.

4. THE PREDATOR – $8.7m
Yet another attempt at rebooting this franchise by Fox it has not survived too well. A steep drop of -65% after a soft opening week means they will be giving up … or attempting another reboot in a number of years down the road.

5. CRAZY RICH ASIANS – $6.51m
The surprise romantic comedy is not going away. After 6 weeks it only slides by -25% and is still showing in 2,800 theaters. It has crossed $150 million in its run already.

6. WHITE BOY RICK – $5.0m
An adult drama with Matthew McConaughey in a supporting role it may have some distant aspirations at Oscar attention. Modestly budgeted it will need some legs in order to start seeing profitability.

7. PEPPERMINT – $3.72m
Jennifer Garner returning to her action roots has not lit up the screen. While poised well in the role the script has been seen as far too predictable and derivative to attract a paying crowd.

8. FAHRENHEIT 11/9 – $3.1m
Michael Moore returns with his brand of political agitprop, and it did not even get hot enough to light a fuse. His attempt at taking down the Trump administration managed to only attract the true resistance fighters – everyone else basically shrugged. It was projected to make at least twice this amount, with hopeful expectations of going even higher. To give an indication as to how big of a dud this is, over the summer Dinesh D’Souza released his documentary “Death of a Nation”, and it was being considered an abject failure. Moore’s title was released into 70% more theaters, while earning the same opening. That is less than a bad performance.

9. THE MEG – $2.35m
The giant shark is doing giant business. It is up to $140 million so far, and globally this has been a massive hit. The worldwide total has climbed over $500 million this weekend.

10. SEARCHING – $2.17m
This small Asian-centric drama has lingered around for five weeks and has calmly taken in $23 million in total gross to this point.