Its Halloween weekend and horror movies Paranormal Activity and Saw VI aren’t the talk of the town. Instead all the box office frenzy is focused on Michael Jackson’s This Is It. How much money will it make? Can it possibly come close to AEG’s 5 day prediction (it opened on Wednesday) of $250M? Not very likely after early estimates for Wednesday’s gross have come in at about $12M. One way or another, Jackson will take the #1 spot for the weekend, but it is not shaping up to be the runaway blockbuster that all the hype surrounding the pic suggested. Let’s take a look.

With Halloween right around the corner, the box office was ruled by scary movies. Indie sensation, Paranormal Activity, expanded to just fewer than 2000 theatres and took the top spot for the first time in its fifth week in release. The only thing scary about Saw VI was its box office performance. The latest in the series was down 50% from the opening of the last installment last year and the money making horror franchise may be on its last legs. The other three releases for the weekend, Astro Boy, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant and Amelia failed to cause too much excitement and were basically dead on arrival.

This weekend Max was not only king of the wild things; he was the king of the box office as Spike Jonze’s adaption of Where the Wild Things Are opened at #1. Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx had a strong opening at #2. Paranormal Activity expanded its theatre count and its box office revenue, landing in third place on the charts, but it’s per screen average was more than triple that of Wild Things average. Horror remake, The Stepfather, opened in fifth place, outperforming several fright flicks that have tanked over the last couple of weeks. Take a look.  

There are 3 new releases hitting theatres this weekend; Where the Wild Things Are adapted from the popular children’s book, Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx and horror remake, The Stepfather. Wild Things will be the #1 movie for the weekend without a doubt, but the question this weekend is how much money will Paranormal Activity rake in? The supernatural indie thriller is expanding nationwide after a huge haul last weekend from a limited number of screens and will be making a ton of money over the next few weekends, especially with Halloween right around the corner.

Audiences took a vacation with Vince Vaughn and friends propelling Couples Retreat to a strong #1 opening, defying industry expectations and movie critics along the way. Thanks to positive word of mouth and strong reviews, Zombieland held up real well in its second frame, as did the Toy Story 3-D double feature. The real story this weekend is indie fright flick Paranormal Activity cracking the top 5 while in only 159 theatres. Expanding into more theatres in the next few weeks, the timing for this film couldn’t be better with Halloween right around the corner and it is shaping up to be this decades answer to The Blair Witch Project. 

It’s kind of a boring weekend at the box office with only 1 new movie hitting multiplexes everywhere. The comedy Couples Retreat, starring Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Jason Bateman should be able to notch up a decent debut with no other new releases to distract movie goers.  Zombieland has been receiving great word of mouth and should perform quite well in its second outing and Disney will try to squeeze one more weekend out of its limited engagement of the Toy Story 3-D double feature.

This weekend at the box office, horror comedy Zombieland did what no other fright flick could do over the last few weeks; open at #1. The Toy Story 3-D double feature had a solid opening in 3^rd place.   The Invention of Lying from Ricky Gervais opened better than his last film, Ghost Town. Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It, opened mildly in 6^th place, in a tie with Michael Moore’s latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. 

This weekend at the box office, a mix of 5 new and old films will try to get your attention. Among the new, horror comedy, Zombieland, starring Woody Harrelson, roller derby comedy, Whip It, from first time director Drew Barrymore, Ricky Gervais’ latest comedy, The Invention of Lying and Michael Moore is back with documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. The old film competing for your hard earned dollars is Disney Pixar’s repackaged Toy Story 1 and 2 double feature, now in 3-D. Will any of these films be able to keep current two time champ, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs out of the top spot for a third weekend? Let’s take a look.