Each Thursday we look at what is going to be coming out in theaters this weekend, show you the trailers for the big releases, predict the box office winner and just generally give you enough of a carrot to pull you through the rest of the work week.  Last weekend’s box office was the weakest of the summer yet, and unless you have a deep affinity for creepy dolls, this looks like a weekend to catch up on your TV as well.

First, for every parent who took their kid to The Nut Job a few years back…..here’s The Nut Job 2.  You did that.  Proud?

The Glass Castle has great material in the memoir on which its based and great leads in Woody Harrelson (who is having a YEAR) and Brie Larson, but it’s not being very well received by critics.

That brings us to the creepy doll portion of the column with Annabelle: Creation, the sequel to Annabelle, which spun-off of The Conjuring.  There is an actual set of creepy dolls in my parents house whom I have nearly attacked in the wee hours of the morning when they were sadistically set up to be backlit by the moon, so I have a thing with creepy dolls in that I want to burn them.  With fire.  A lot.  But, y’all love your scaries, so you’re going to make sure this becomes a trilogy of creepy plastic human effigies, aren’t you?

Annabelle: Creation (Miranda Otto, R, 1hr 49min)

The Glass Castle (Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, PG-13, 2hr 7min)

The Nut Job (Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, PG, 1hr 26m)

HOW DID WE DO LAST WEEK?
KT picked The Dark Tower to win last weekend, but it wasn’t a triumphant victory, and it very nearly got taken down by Dunkirk in its third weekend, as Chris Nolan’s World War II epic continues to exceed box office expectations and experience very low drop-off week-to-week.  The Dark Tower, after a decade-long journey to the screen, only opened with $19.7 million, barely topping Dunkirk’s $17.2 million.
(2017 Prediction Record: 28-4; Lifetime prediction record 66-9).

WHO WILL WIN THE WEEKEND?
Never underestimate bored horror fans.  The fourth movie in The Conjuring Universe should easily win the box office, providing us all with more films about creepy dolls, allowing me-if nothing else-to keep using the phrase “creepy dolls”.  Annabelle: Creation should double-up anything else out there this weekend.