Moviegoers must be ready for Halloween frights, because they flocked to see Paranormal Activity 3 in droves the weekend of Oct. 21-23. The new box office king boasts the highest opening for fall 2011 and is the top horror movie opening ever, while other new releases were left shivering in a corner.
It’s a box office win for the Paranormal Activity franchise, yet again. The first installment road a grassroots campaign to a stunning box office win in its second week, Paranormal Activity 2 rocked a $40.6 million opening weekend and now, Paranormal Activity 3 has topped its predecessors and every other horror movie, while sending this weekend’s box office competition running scared.
Find out why SheKnows enjoyed Paranormal Activity 3 >>
Box Office Top Ten: Oct. 21-23
1. Paranormal Activity 3 $54 million
2. Real Steel $11.3 million
3. Footloose (2011) $10.9 million
4. The Three Musketeers (2011) $8.8 million
5. The Ides of March $4.9
6. Dolphin Tale $4.2
7. Moneyball $4.1
8. Johnny English Reborn $3.8
9. The Thing (2011) $3.1 million
10. 50/50 $2.8 million
Paranormal kills the competition
Reel Steal had less trouble fighting off the jitters than the rest of Paranomal Activity 3′s competition, but the boxing tale did get knocked out of the top spot after two weeks. Footloose also added another handful of cash to its box office gains while dropping a spot, but new release The Three Musketeers barely made the top five with $8.8 million, according to early estimates.
Johnny English Reborn performed even worse, but only stateside. Wacky Brit Rowan Atkinson has already wowed the overseas markets. The spy comedy is up to $104.5 million abroad, but wouldn’t have minded a better take for the U.S. opening.
The Mighty Macs barely broke a million, and didn’t make the top ten. The faith-based sports film couldn’t come close to Moneyball, which took seventh, or push past Courageous, which is still going strong for a grassroots hit at eleventh.
There could be some shakeups in the top ten once the final tally comes in, but the key races are far enough apart to lock in the top five, even if the numbers come out a bit differently.
Next week’s contenders include some highly hyped additions, including Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek‘s animated Puss in Boots, Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried‘s action thriller In Time and Johnny Depp‘s Hunter S. Thompson-inspired adventure, The Rum Diary.
Image: Paramount
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