Where the Wild Things Are opened to a respectable $32.5M (close to my $35M prediction) over the weekend, becoming the third highest opening for a children’s movie during the month of October. What an honor! Of course, Wild Things isn’t really a kid’s movie so that has to be taken with a grain of salt. Both Shark Tale ($47.6M opening) and High School Musical 3 ($42M opening) fared better in their debut frames. Based on the classic children’s book, Wild Things obviously seemed like a children’s movie but it is really a movie for adults in disguise. The film has polarized critics and audiences alike (read my review here) and will probably experience a large decline next weekend as word continues to spread.

Revenge thriller, Law Abiding Citizen, opened way stronger than expected, coming in second place with $21.3M. This was much higher than my $17M prediction and a surprise to the industry as well as neither Jamie Foxx or Gerard Butler can guarantee a big opening. The reviews were terrible as well, but something about a man who gets revenge for the death of his family connects with audiences. Just ask Liam Neeson, whose Taken kicked box office ass earlier in the year. I haven’t posted my review yet, but for the record I thought the movie was god awful and I would not recommend it at all. Unlike Taken, I don’t expect Law Abiding Citizen to display any legs in the next few weeks. The major difference in these films is that Taken was quite good whereas Citizen is quite bad.

Expanding from 159 screens to 760, Paranormal Activity scared up another $20.2M right on target with my $20M call. Paranormal made a huge $26.5K per screen more than tripling the average of #1 film for the weekend, Where the Wild Things Are. Activity will expand into more theatres next weekend where it will have to contend with Halloween staple, Saw VI. If anything, Activity will saw a little of off Saw VI’s opening, which is fine by me. It is almost time for Jigsaw to die once and for all and be remade twenty years from now. 

After Jennifer’s Body, Sorority Row and several other horror films struck out at the box office, I seriously underestimated The Stepfather’s box office chances. The horror remake opened in fifth place with $12.3M; double that of my $6M guess. Reviews have been awful and most horror films reach their target audience on opening weekend so expect The Stepfather to have a huge drop off next weekend.

Among holdovers, Vince Vaughn’s latest comedy, Couples Retreat, fell a reasonable 48% in its second outing collecting $17.8M exactly as I thought. The 10 day total stands at a respectable $63.3M and Retreat will probably find its way to about $90M by the end of the vacation. To see how the rest of the top 10 shaped up and how all of my predictions for the weekend fared, check out the chart below.

Be sure to come back Thursday for my predictions for this weekend’s releases, Saw VI, Astro Boy, The Vampires Assistant and Amelia.

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