“Puss In Boots” Slays the Box-Office

So if sequels aren’t doing so well at the box-office these days, spin-offs seem to be doing just fine. Case in point: this weekend’s box office champ was Dreamworks Animation’s spin-off of its popular Shrek series, Puss in Boots.

Though many who were disappointed in the direction the Shrek series took in its subsequent sequels, fans lined up this weekend to watch one of the series most popular supporting players, Puss In Boots, slay the competition to the tune of $34 million.

Featuring the voice of Antonio Banderas, the animated comedy attracted a largely family audience during its Halloween weekend debut, including a large portion of Latino moviegoers which, by some estimates, made up more than a third of the audience.

Its opening haul was enough to topple last week’s surprise juggernaut, Paranormal Activity, which fell to $18.5 million in its second week after a record opening weekend. Overall, the box office was up nearly 8 percent over Halloween weekend last year.

The biggest disappointment out of the new films opening this weekend was the Johnny Depp produced and starring vehicle The Rum Diary which opened with a paltry $5 million and cost nearly $50 million to make. Most box office analysts are blaming the studio’s lackluster advertising campaign. Most moviegoers were unaware that a new Johnny Depp movie was opening even after it had hit the marquee.

The weekend’s top ten releases were the following:

1. “Puss in Boots,” $34 million.

2. “Paranormal Activity 3,” $18.5 million.

3. “In Time,” $12 million.

4. “Footloose,” $5.4 million.

5. “The Rum Diary,” $5 million.

6. “Real Steel,” $4.7 million.

7. “The Three Musketeers,” $3.5 million.

8. “The Ides of March,” $2.7 million.

9. “Moneyball,” $2.4 million.

10. “Courageous,” $1.8 million.