Tim Burton has had a rough spell at the box office over the past six years.
Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams, was meant to be Oscar contender that failed to get any attention from the Academy.
Frankenweenie was deemed too bizarre for family crowds.
Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp, revived a campy 1970s show that most American viewers had forgotten.
Burton, once a reliable purveyor of blockbusters, hasn’t scored a commercial hit since 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, also starring Depp
The director of Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory seems to be on firmer ground with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an adaptation of the best-selling novel about a young boy who is taken in by an orphanage populated by children with extraordinary powers.
The tale’s mixture of the magical and the macabre seems a fit for Burton’s quirky sensibility and enchant for tales about outsiders.
The film, distributed by Fox, is expected to open in first place, with roughly $26 million when it debuts in 3,520 locations.
The film will need to do well overseas if it wants to recoup its $110 million budget and start a franchise.
