Box Office Battle: 'The House With a Clock in Its Walls' opens to $26.9M in U.S.

Comcast (CMCSA) subsidiary Universal's "The House With a Clock in its Walls" debuted to a better than expected $26.9M from 3,592 theaters, topping the chart. Overseas, the pre-Halloween offering that follows a young orphan who goes to live in his uncle's spooky house launched to $8.7M for a global start of $35.6M. The movie earned a B+ CinemaScore and sports a 68% Rotten Tomatoes score. BOX OFFICE RUNNERS-UP: Lionsgate's (LGF.A, LGF.B) "A Simple Favor" held nicely in its sophomore outing, grossing $10.4M to place number two and finish the weekend with a domestic total of $32.6M. Behind it was AT&T (T) subsidiary Warner Bros' "The Nun," ending its third weekend with $10.3M and crossing the $100M mark domestically. 21st Century Fox's (FOX, FOXA) "The Predator" placed number four, falling 65% in its sophomore session for a domestic total of $40.4M after earning another $8.7M. Rounding out the top five, "Crazy Rich Asians," another Warner Bros. movie, grossed an estimated $6.5M from 2,802 theaters. Other publicly traded companies in filmmaking include Sony (SNE), Viacom (VIAB) and Disney's (DIS).