The tale of one naughty boy and a whole host of fantastical beasties triumphed this weekend, as Spike Jonze' long-awaited Where The Wild Things Are took top place at the US box office with a pretty respectable $32.5million. That's a testament both to how well-loved the book is and how thoroughly the film's been marketing; assuming word of mouth is strong, the defiantly independent-spirited film could reach the all-important $100m mark.
In second place was Law Abiding Citizen with $21.3m, proving that people love old-school thrillers, especially when they feature Gerard Butler being violent and Jamie Foxx looking first cocky and then a little desperate. Third went to horror overachiever Paranormal Activity, with $20.2m on only 760 screens. It achieved that target by making over $26,000 per cinema, the sort of screen average usually associated with much-hyped indies showing on only four screens in New York and LA.
The last new wide release was The Stepfather, making an OK $12.3m which isn't bad when you consider that the thriller remake's biggest stars are Gossip Girl's Penn Badgely and Nip/Tuck's Dylan Walsh.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs experienced yet another sub-30% drop, taking $8.1m in its fifth weekend for $108.3m so far. In sixth place was Zombieland, taking $7.8m and passing $60m in three weeks, making it the highest-grossing zombie movie ever. Overall the weekend was a whopping 39% better than the same weekend last year, so life in the movies is good.
For the full chart and enough statistics to keep even the most dedicated analyst happy, head on over to Box Office Mojo.