Competing against Halloween parties and contending with an unseasonal blizzard in the Northeast, DreamWorks Animation’s "Puss in Boots," distributed by Paramount, purred its way to the top spot at the North American box office with an estimated $34 million. That amounted to a new Halloween weekend record, leaping over the $33.6 million that "Saw III" registered in 2006.
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But the weekend’s two other new wide releases displayed far less derring-do. Fox’s sci-fi tale "In Time," starring Justin Timberlake, debuted in third place with $12 million, while the Johnny Depp starrer, "The Rum Diary," released by FilmDistrict had to settle for a sobering $5 million and a fifth place showing.
Meanwhile, another animated movie, Steven Spielberg's "Tintin" got off to a strong start in 19 foreign markets where it collected an estimated $55.8 million. In 17 of those markets, it opened at number one, including the United Kingdom, where it took in $10.7 million and France, where it amassed $21.5 million. While Paramount handled the film in the U.K., Sony rolled it out in the other territories. The movie opens stateside via Paramount on Dec. 21.
While "Puss" challenged the holiday — Halloween weekend is usually reserved for scary movies rather than family fare — a ghost story did hold down the second slot as Paramount’s "Paranormal Activity 3" slid 65 percent as it entered its second weekend. The second prequel to 2009’s original "Paranormal Activity," the new movie took in an additional $18.5 million to bring its domestic gross to $81.3 million.
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In addition to "Puss" and "Paranormal," Paramount also had a third entry in the top five as the toe-tapping "Footloose," in its third weekend, took in $5.4 million for fourth-place standing, bringing its domestic total to $38.4 million.