While Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the weekend box office race with a debut of $35.4 million thanks to kids and fanboys, Clint Eastwood's The Mule scored a victory of its own by appealing to America's heartland and decidedly older moviegoers. The Mule , from Warner Bros., opened to $17.2 million to land one of the top starts ever for a film helmed by Eastwood, who remains Hollywood's most prolific director at the age of 88. The Mule is actually the second film he directed this year, following The 15:17 to Paris , which was released in February. And although The Mule didn't come close to equaling the $35 million opening of Sully in 2016 or the $89 million that American Sniper scored in its first weekend of wide release in 2015, it otherwise ranks as Eastwood's best opening since 2000's Space Cowboys , not adjusted for inflation. Eastwood's longevity in the business paid off as fans that he has acquired over the years turned out to see his la...