BRIEFLY

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The House With A Clock In Its Walls took the domestic weekend box office with a projected $26.8 million, beating second-place A Simple Favor's $10.4 million and third-place The Nun's $10.2 million.

The Predator was fourth with $8.7 million, pushing its total to $40.4 million. After the weekend, The Incredibles 2 stands at $606.3 million, and Ant-Man and The Wasp at $215.8 million.

IMAGE'S JESUS FREAK: Image Comics will release Jesusfreak, a new original graphic novel from Joe Casey and Benjamin Marra, on March 20.

Here's how the book is described:

"Jesusfreak is a bloody, two-fisted tale of heroic historical fiction featuring a certain young Nazarean carpenter who is having some trouble finding his place within a world of ever increasing violence. He knows he's different... he just doesn't know why."

"Jesusfreak is less inspired by any strict religious traditions and is instead more concerned with exploring the unique tension that exists between depicting a mythical figure and a historical figure -- a tension that is compounded when, for many, they're considered the same person," Casey said. "It's also a chance for Marra and I to indulge in a specific style of hard pulp storytelling that we think perfectly fits this material."

ABRAMS' MEGASCOPE: Abrams has announced a new line of books, Megascope, to be established as part of the Abrams ComicArts publishing program, in time for the imprint's 10th anniversary in 2019.

Megascope will be curated by comics creator John Jennings, illustrator of the Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, an adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's work. Megascope takes its name from the legendary scholar W. E. B. Du Bois's allegorical invention -- a device that can peer through time and space into other realities.

Megascope will publish an array of graphic novels and art of comics books, including stories of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and magical realism, as well as creative nonfiction narratives centered around social justice issues. Andrew Smith, SVP, Abrams Children's Books and ComicArts, and Charles Kochman, Editorial Director of Abrams ComicArts, collaborated with Jennings to bring this new line to Abrams. Charlotte Greenbaum, editor, will work with Kochman to assist Jennings in overseeing the process for all Megascope titles. Jennings will acquire and help guide the editorial vision of Megascope, which will publish between four and six books per year, the first of which will release in fall 2019.

"Everyone who participates in our society deserves to see themselves and their culture reflected back to them in the media with which they interact," Jennings said. "Storytelling is an empathy technology and it gives us a space to share and explore everyone's humanity. We plan to reach back and find speculative critical narratives of the past and introduce them to new audiences. We also want to help develop new stories from new voices that speak to the imagination and wonder of fantastic shared narratives for all to learn from and enjoy. Abrams has repeatedly shown its dedication to creating beautiful books for everyone. It's just one of many reasons why this partnership is so timely and exciting for me."