When the heroes of “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” looked out their rearview mirrors at the box office this weekend, they had every reason to expect to see either Simba or Dora the Explorer on their tail. Instead, they saw a scary scarecrow.

“Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” the nostalgic horror movie based on the creepy children’s stories by Alvin Schwartz, debuted in second place at the box office this weekend, exceeding expectations and grossing about $20.8 million in the United States and Canada.

Distributed by Lionsgate, “Scary Stories” screened at about 1,200 fewer locations than “Hobbs & Shaw” did. But it narrowed the gap by making more money per theater than that movie or any other this weekend, according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data.

Its success was presumably bolstered both by fairly strong reviews (the movie holds an 80 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and by its association with one of its producers, Guillermo del Toro, whose name was used heavily in the film’s marketing.