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Universal’s “The House With a Clock in its Walls” is beating analyst expectations after a strong Saturday at the box office, with estimates now at a $26.8 million opening from 3,592 screens.

This $40 million Amblin-produced family film had been projected for an opening in the low $20 million range, but business picked up well after a $7.5 million Friday. Critical reception has been fairly solid, with a B+ on CinemaScore to join a 68 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.

Also Read: 'House With a Clock in Its Walls' Film Review: Eli Roth Directs a Fun, Family-Friendly Halloween Frolic

After inflation adjustment, this result matches the best opening for director Eli Roth, who up to this point has made gory horror films like “Cabin Fever” and the “Hostel” trilogy. His previous opening weekend best was scored by the first “Hostel” in 2006 with $19.5 million, which adjusts to $27.6 million in 2018 money.

“Clock” will be the major family...

“The House With a Clock in Its Walls” is on its way to a No. 1 debut at the box office with an estimated $24 million from 3,592 North American locations.

The remaining top five slots should go to box office holdovers, with three other R-rated films opening in the $1 million to $3 million range.

“House” stars Cate Blanchett and Jack Black as an eccentric witch and warlock who live next door to each other and who play host to 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), who goes to live with his Uncle Jonathan (Black) in Michigan after his parents die. Eli Roth directed the fantasy pic from a script by Eric Kripke, adapted from the children’s book of the same name by John Bellairs. The Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment film is coming in above earlier estimates, which had placed it in the $18 million to $20 million range. It took in an estimated $7.8 million on Friday.

Transparent‘s Melora Hardin has been cast in Paul Osborne's indie thriller Cruel Hearts. She joins Eddie Jemison (Oceans Eleven), Patrick Day (Favor), Alev Aydin (Lonely Boy) and Bonnie Root (Bones). Written and directed by Osborne, the film follows a young man who discovers that he’s been having an affair with a woman who is married to a notorious crime boss. In fear of what may transpire if caught, he makes a bold decision to confess his transgressions in hopes for…...

One problem lower-budget independent filmmakers face when figuring out both financing and distribution is a paucity of data. VOD numbers aren’t publicly reported and once you get into non-theatrical distribution, those numbers usually don’t appear in any box-office reporting. As many, including us here at Filmmaker, have said, we need to share our data, whether that’s in public forums or among private collectives. One filmmaker who is doing the former is Paul Osborne over at Hope for Film. In an excellent post, he breaks down the revenue for the small-scale theatrical run for his feature, Favor, and compares it to […]...

One problem lower-budget independent filmmakers face when figuring out both financing and distribution is a paucity of data. VOD numbers aren’t publicly reported and once you get into non-theatrical distribution, those numbers usually don’t appear in any box-office reporting. As many, including us here at Filmmaker, have said, we need to share our data, whether that’s in public forums or among private collectives. One filmmaker who is doing the former is Paul Osborne over at Hope for Film. In an excellent post, he breaks down the revenue for the small-scale theatrical run for his feature, Favor, and compares it to […]...

ComingSoon.net is premiering the trailer for Paul ( Ten 'til Noon ) Osborne's new movie Favor , which arrives on VOD and iTunes via Gravitas Ventures on April 22. The film stars Blayne Weaver as Kip Desmond, whose life is upturned when a waitress he's having a fling with is accidentally killed in a motel room, so he turns to his childhood friend Marvin (Patrick Day) to help him get rid of her body. Christina Rose, Cheryl Nichols and Jeffrey Combs co-star. You can check out the movie for yourself when it's available on iTunes on April 22 via this link .

So you've just killed someone and you're feeling all alone in this world. Hey, it happens, right? If you're lucky, you'll be able to call someone to help you out of this horrid situation. That's what friends are for... it's just too bad the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Below you'll find the first details on director Paul Osbourne's new flick Favor starring Jeffrey Combs, Blayne Weaver, Christina Rose, and Patrick Day. The film will be having its premiere at Phoenix Film Festival on April 5th. Dig on the goods thus far.

Synopsis

Kip Desmond has gotten everything he's ever wanted: a thriving career, beautiful wife, and an affluent lifestyle, all of which is put in jeopardy when Abby, the woman with whom he's having a casual fling, is accidentally killed. Desperate, he ends up on the doorstep of childhood friend Marvin Croat and asks him...

If you take a statistics class (or just take your fantasy baseball team really seriously), one of the first things you learn is that trends are largely a myth. When a team like the Red Sox starts the season 2-13, that’s probably nothing more than a few bad breaks strung together. Given enough time, they’ll right the ship. Unless their third starter is John Lackey. Then all bets are off. Our brains are wired to see patterns where none exist, to take statistical noise and turn it into something it isn’t (there’s a joke in there somewhere about movie critics, but I’ll leave it alone).

So when I work two films in a row where the director is also serving as the d.p. and camera operator — does that mean that there’s this great movement brewing on the West Coast? Of course not. Two...