Weekend Box Office: 'Puss in Boots' Sets Halloween Record

These 'Boots' were designed for walking -- all around the box office competition. 'Shrek' spinoff 'Puss in Boots' easily won the weekend, not just outpacing two other new wide releases with a wide margin, but additionally setting an archive for that greatest Halloween weekend opening ever. The fencing feline voiced by Antonio Banderas purred his method to an believed $34 million opening. Which was a great deal under expected, because of the recognition from the 'Shrek' franchise, the fanbase the smoothness gained in three previous payments, a lift from three dimensional taxes and decent reviews and word-of-mouth. But a global Series whose clinching seventh game was performed on Friday evening along with a East snow storm on Saturday put a wet blanket on forecasts that were within the $40 to $44 million range. Still, if Sunday's estimate holds, 'Puss' will beat the Halloween weekend record of $33.six million set through the debut of 'Saw III' 5 years ago. By opening sooner than initially scheduled (the DreamWorks Animation film was slotted for November. 4 before upgrading 1 week), 'Puss' might have worked a fatal blow to last week's champion, 'Paranormal Activity 3,' which lost a hefty 65 % of their business in the second weekend. The horror prequel ended up to second place by having an believed $18.5 million -- about $two million a lot more than 'Paranormal Activity 2' gained in the second weekend, however with a significantly greater depreciation (65 % to 59 percent). Such as the previous two payments, the film is generating love-it-or-hate-it response from moviegoers. In 2 weekends, it's scared up $81.3 million. Opening in third place was 'In Time' by having an believed $12. million. That isn't far below the $13 million approximately that commentators predicted for that Justin Timberlake/Amanda Seyfried sci-fi thriller. Despite only so-so reviews, distributor twentieth century Fox should be pleased the film did better still overseas, generating $14.5 million. In the third week, 'Footloose' walked lower one rung to 4th place. Losing nearly 1 / 2 of last week's business, the dance remake walked served by an believed $5.4 million, for any total to date of $38.4 million. Just behind 'Footloose' was 'The Rum Diary,' opening in fifth place by having an believed $5. million. Johnny Depp's labor-of-love comedy, with different semi-autobiographical tale that uncle Hunter S. Thompson left unregistered for pretty much 4 decades, was likely to open around $6 or $7 million, using its literary eccentricity trumping Depp's usual box office appeal. Having a per-screen average of $2,205 on just 2,272 screens, 'Rum' is not prone to have sturdy legs. Using its release plan scaly to just 265 screens, the speculative period drama 'Anonymous' opened up outdoors the very best 10 and gained an believed $1. million. This is a modest $3,774 per screen jury continues to be on if the Shakespeare-did not-write-Shakespeare drama can drum up strong interest once it opens wider. A film which should possess a more powerful wide-release future is lengthy-distance romance 'Like Crazy,' which first showed on just four screens but gained an enormous $30,000 on each, to have an believed total of $120,000. Another large box office story a few days ago also happened from sight from the domestic top ten. It had been the worldwide opening of 'The Adventures of Tintin.' We will not begin to see the much-anticipated Steven Spielberg motion-capture saga until Christmas, but overseas, it acquired an believed $55.8 million in 19 nations. When it drops lower our chimney on 12 ,. 21, it'll be an enormous worldwide hit. 'Puss in Boots' - Trailer No. 3 The entire top ten: 1. 'Puss in Boots,' $34. million (3,952 screens), era 2. 'Paranormal Activity 3,' $18.5 million (3,329), $81.3 million total 3. 'In Time,' $12. million (3,122), era 4. 'Footloose,' $5.4 million (3,224) $38.4 million 5. 'The Rum Diary,' $5. million (2,272), era 6. 'Real Steel,' $4.7 million (2,914), $73.9 million 7. 'The Three Musketeers,' $3.5 million (3,017), $14.8 million 8. 'The Ides of March,' $2.7 million (1,572), $33.5 million 9. 'Moneyball,' $2.4 million (1,631), $67.4 million 10. 'Courageous,' $1.8 million (1,134) $27.six million [Photos: DreamWorks Animation, twentieth century Fox, FilmDistrict] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook Follow Gary Susman on Twitter: @garysusman RELATED