Audiences Gobble up The Wild Things

It should be no surprise to many that the Spike Jonze film “Where The Wild Things Are” took over the top slot in the weekend box office. The children’s book adaptation fixed in a total of $32.4 Million even though it shared a fair percentage of negative and positive reviews. The Warner Bros Pictures film did not have completely smooth sailing, having to deal with two other recent releases and an expansion of a new sleeper hit.

“Law Abiding Citizen” managed to seize itself some audience members, jumping into the second place slot with $21.2 Million for its opening weekend. The Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx co-starring film was under the radar prior to two weeks ago, but caught steam when a slew of positive word-of-mouth started to spread. Horror continues to spread, in a good way, with “The Stepfather” managing to make about $12.3 Million. The remake of the 1987 film attracted some movie goers despite the huge push of marketing for “Where The Wild Things Are”.

“Paranormal Activity” continues to make huge surges of waves, finally getting a boost and having its first nationwide release weekend. With that, now the film shoots up the box office totals for this weekend, making $20.1 Million which we all can agree on is numbers this under the radar feature would never had imagined. Take a look at the top ten of the weekend below (thanks to Box Office Mojo):

Weekend Box Office (October 16-18)

1. Where the Wild Things Are  ($32.4 M)
2. Law Abiding Citizen  ($21.2 M)
3. Paranormal Activity  ($20.1 M)
4. Couples Retreat  ($17.9 M)
5. The Stepfather  ($12.3 M)
6. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs  ($8.1 M)
7. Zombieland  ($7.8 M)
8. Toy Story/Toy Story 2 in 3D  ($3 M)
9. Surrogates  ($1.92 M)
10. The Invention of Lying  ($1.9 M)

While we creep closer towards Halloween, our decade’s staple horror franchise churns out Saw VI. Also being released this weekend is Amelia, Astro Boy, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, a re-release of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D and a limited release of Ong Bak 2: The Beginning.