“Miss Peregrine” Finds A Temporary Home in First Place

There was something a little peculiar about the openings of two of the new movies this weekend. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children took the top spot with an estimated $28.5 million. While it's better than Tim Burton's last two smaller offerings, it's about in line with Dark Shadows. All of which to say, it's nowhere near what Alice in Wonderland did. And Deepwater Horizon took second with $20.6 million. That's way off from what Lone Survivor – the last collaboration between Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg – did when it opened in wide release in 2014 ($37.8 million).

The Magnificent Seven dropped to third and at this point it's tracking below The Lone Ranger (yes, that notorious Johnny Depp fiasco), which is bound to be a disappointment. $100 million seems out of reach. The same goes for Storks, which is unlikely to make back its $70 million budget.

Sully passed $100 million, becoming the 18th movie to do so this year. It's already passed much bigger movies like Independence Day: Resurgence and will likely pass other blockbusters like The Legend of Tarzan and Ghostbusters by the time it finishes its run. That means it will be the highest-grossing live-action movie that's not based on a comic book or a sequel or remake.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: Denial, the courtroom drama about a Holocaust denier. The film, which stars Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall, took in an average of $20,420 on its five screens.
• Masterminds didn't make off with a lot of money. The true-life caper – based on a 1997 armored-car robbery – boasted an all-star cast of funny people, but debuted at No. 6 with only $6.6 million.
• Queen of Katwe inexplicably did even worse. Moving up to No. 7 after its limited debut last week, the crowd-pleasing true story took in only $2.6 million. Hopefully audiences will discover it on home video and streaming, because it's a movie people of all ages would enjoy.

Next week:

The Birth of a Nation takes on The Girl on the Train. Both are violent, R-rated movies aimed at adults. But who will prevail? The Birth of a Nation's grim but important subject matter (Nat Turner's slave rebellion) and controversy about writer-director-star Nate Parker's past rape allegations seem like it will hurt it. The Girl on the Train, on the other hand, is based on a popular murder mystery. Girl should take first place with about $25 million, while Birth will take second with around $15 million.