So “Chronicle” topped the box-office this weekend, which delights me; I was worried that “Big Miracle” would become a freak family hit and wind up burying everything else.

Instead, Josh Trank’s ingenious found-footage picture brought in a modest but respectable $22 million, coming in just ahead of “The Woman in Black“, which did pretty well for itself with $21 million. Joe Carnahan’s “The Grey” dropped into third with $9.5 million, and “Big Miracle” popped up in fourth with $8.5 million.

Would “Chronicle” have had a splashier opening if the marketing had been more open about its content? Almost certainly. But I really respect Fox for keeping a lid on it; I went in knowing almost nothing about the plot, and that’s definitely the way I’d want everyone else to experience it. Like yourselves, for instance.