Justin Timberlake - Puss Nicked As Box Office Goes To The Dogs


Blame the unseasonably snowy weather in the East. Blame the World Series. Blame Halloween parties. Blame the economy. Box office analysts were doing a little of each to explain the lousy weekend that saw blah openings for three new movies and mostly insipid performances from everything else. The No. 1 film, as expected, turned out to be Paramount/DreamWorks Animation's Puss in Boots , but its $34-million take fell below most pundits' predictions of $35-40 million. Twentieth Century Fox's In Time , starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, debuted with $12 million -- at the low end of predictions. But FilmDistrict's The Rum Diary, starring Johnny Depp, was blotto with just $5 million -- about half what it was expected to earn. The weekend before Halloween did apparently boost the fortunes of last week's winner, Paranormal Activity 3 , which slipped to second place with $18.5 million. Horror movies have been known to suffer worse drops in their second weekend stanza.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo 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. T he Ides of March , $2.7 million; 9. Moneyball , $2.4 million; 10. Courageous , $1.8 million.