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Clockwise from upper left: Splinterheads, Ghost World, An Education, House of the Devil.

Opening. Amiable and pleasant, Splinterheads revolves around a romance between Justin (Thomas Middleditch), an aimless small town dreamer, and Galaxy (Rachael Taylor), a gorgeous grifter who (literally) bumps into him at a gas station. She's more interested in separating him from his money than getting to know the lunkhead within, while he quickly decides that he's met the love of his life -- or, even better, a reason to leave his upstate New York world behind and start living for himself instead of his mother and grandfather.

Brent Sersen (Blackballed) is a better director than writer; the characters hold few surprises and the plot's trajectory threatens to die of old age before it reaches its pre-ordained conclusion. Still, he takes advantage of a visiting carnival and the grifter's obsession with geocaching, a variation on treasure hunting, to string together several lyrical interludes and enough laughs to deserve a recommendation. Dean Winters, Lea Thompson, and Christopher McDonald provide reliable support. Splinterheads opens in New York on Friday and expands to other cities the following week; check the official site for theaters and showtimes. Also opening in New York the same day: Collapse, Chris Smith's latest doc (more from last week and the exclusive poster debut).

On-Demand / Online Viewing. Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World departs from the source material quite abruptly, but still remains faithful to the dark spirit of loneliness that haunts the characters. Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannson, and Steve Buscemi star. It's now available on FilmBuff, Cinetic's cable on-demand channel; check local listings to watch this essential indie at home.

After the jump: Who educated the devil?

Michael Jackson's This is It was the only new wide release this weekend, and essentially had the box office to itself. This may seem weird, but this is as it should be -- and it has more to do with Halloween falling on a Saturday than with any show of respect for the King of Pop. Predictably, This is It won the weekend, grossing $21.3 million for a total of $32.5 million since its Wednesday opening. That's a good number, and monumental for a documentary, though it is also an instance where the studio's hype machine may have led people astray.

Those who read the breathless press releases about the trumped-up advance ticket sales frenzy surrounding This Is It may be disappointed (or in any case surprised) by these figures. But over $30 million in five days for a concert documentary is nothing to sneeze at -- and I don't think that expecting much more was reasonable. (As a footnote, too, the movie made nearly $70 million outside of North America -- which also makes sense.)

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day bowed on 68 screens and grossed just under half a million in 16th place, which isn't bad, really -- confirming the small cult following for Boondock Saints that everyone already knew existed. Among holdovers, Paranormal Activity continued to add screens, and continued to hold up well -- it should break $100 million by this time next week. Saw VI and Where the Wild Things Are both suffered drops over 60%; Wild Things will top out around $70 million (pretty good for an art film), while Saw VI will wind up making around (or just over) half of the next lowest grosser in the franchise. Will the next one go straight to DVD? (Probably not, but it might be time to start asking the question.)

The full top 10 after the jump.

Indie Roundup, your weekly dose of what's happening (slightly) outside the mainstream.

Deals. Via our friends at indieWIRE, we learn that Brian Baugh's faith-based To Save a Life will be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films in January 2010. The film follows an "all-American teen" boy dealing with the aftermath of a friend's death. Cross-cultural romantic drama Cairo Time, starring Patricia Clarkson, will hit theaters and on-demand home viewing systems sometime in the new year, courtesy of IFC Films. Bradley Rust Gray's The Exploding Girl will open in early 2010 through Oscilloscope Laboratories. Zoe Kazan stars as a young college woman dealing with conflicting romantic feelings while home in New York for spring break.

Online / On Demand Viewing. Two recommendations this week, both for titles that are newly available through Amazon's VOD service. Susan Seidelman's Smithereens is a quintessentially New York picture and a fiercely independent experience from a time when indies were few and far between. It's a blast of fresh air about Wren (Susan Berman), a rough-talking young woman, and her travails through the seedier side of life as she tries to make something of herself. It's essential viewing, especially if you've been disappointed by one too many slick faux-indies. Musician Richard Hell is great, too.

Much less essential, but no less vital viewing, is Arlene Nelson's Naked States, which trails along as Spencer Tunick engineers massive works of art composed by live, naked human flesh. Tunick is a fascinating photographer / hustler, and so are the people who decide to bare all for the sake of art.

Activity of a different kind, Chilean cleaning, and AFI Fest -- after the jump!

This one is for the increasingly few of you who have steadfastly stuck with the Saw franchise through thick-and-thin in the aughts. The opening weekend numbers for Saw VI are the weakest since the first film, mostly thanks to some stiff competition from breakout hit Paranormal Activity. But box-office returns aren't everything. So: what'd you think?

I wrote this little piece before the release of Saw V last year, in the mode of a frustrated fan hoping for a revitalized franchise. It didn't happen; Saw V was boring and incomprehensible, and I was ready to skip the sixth film altogether. Then it got some decent reviews, and I thought what the hell. I'm glad I did. Saw VI, which sees editor Kevin Greutert take over directing duties, is easily the best Saw movie since the third. That may not be the most enthusiastic bit of praise I've ever issued, but miracle of miracles: the fifth sequel to a half-decent horror flick is legitimately pretty good. Here's how I think Saw got some of its bite back:

• Thriller momentum. For the first time in three years, a Saw movie is exciting, in an old-fashioned what-happens-next sort of way. There are creative traps a-plenty -- some of the most ingenious ones in the series, for those who are into that sort of thing -- but the film doesn't depend on them: it has a semblance of a protagonist, and a story that moves forward, and draws you in, and makes the 90 minutes feel like less. Which is related to my next point, namely:

Is the Saw bubble finally deflating for good? The sixth installment of the mainstay franchise played second fiddle to the still-surging Paranormal Activity this weekend, grossing only $14.8 million dollars -- less than half the bow of the previous four installments, and lower even than the original 2004 film. The competition from the plucky indie horror film likely has something to do with Saw VI's disappointing returns, waning interest is probably involved as well. Paranormal Activity, for its part, claimed the top spot for the first time in its impressive five-week run, hanging on to its momentum in its first weekend of legitimate wide release.

The Paranormal/Saw horror combo left the weekend's other newcomers floundering. Summit's Astro Boy didn't have the marketing muscle it needed, while Amelia was hurt by bad reviews and a lack of studio enthusiasm. But the weekend's real disappointment is Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, an obvious attempt by Universal to kick-start a new kiddie fantasy franchise, and a far, far bigger (albeit cheaper) fizzle than The Golden Compass. The Weitz brothers should no longer be permitted to work in this genre.

Where the Wild Things Are took a honking 55% hit in its second weekend, a victim of being an art film in mainstream guise. Law Abiding Citizen fared a little better -- it's now Overture's highest-grossing film.

The full top 11 after the jump.

We'll have our full box office report tomorrow morning, but we should let you know now that, as expected (and reported back on Saturday morning), Paranormal Activity has claimed its first weekend win, slicing and dicing its way through Saw VI (only $14 million) on its way to a $22 million take. Naturally, Paramount wasted no time in announcing that they may indeed pursue a Paranormal Activity sequel if it seems like the right move to make. Speaking to the LA Times, Paramount Chairman Brad Grey said, "We have the rights on a worldwide basis to do Paranormal 2, and we're looking to see if that makes some sense."

Well, considering that this little film with a budget of $11,000 could give the studio its greatest return ever, something tells me a sequel makes a whole lotta sense to the folks crunching numbers. That said, I'm not the only one who remembers the gigantic piece of moose crap that was Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, and so if Paramount is going to try to turn Paranormal Activity into some sort of franchise, they'll have to do so very carefully.

Personally, I'd rather see them invest in writer-director Oren Peli and his other fun, low-budget ideas than to see them throw a few million and some over-the-top special effects at a sequel that will never live up to the original. Let's face it, like Blair Witch before it, a lot of the fun with Paranormal Activity came in discovering it through word of mouth instead of through the normal Hollywood marketing system. It was (and still is) an underdog, and folks love the underdog. The same won't be said for the sequel.

What do you think they should do here?

Just when you thought it was safe to assume the mega horror franchise would once again own another Halloween at the box office, Friday estimates are showing that Paranormal Activity ($7.5 million) beat Saw VI ($7 million), despite the fact that the latter is playing on over 1,100 more screens than the former. Could this finally be the year that a Saw film tanks at the box office? Could Paranormal Activity be the movie that keeps Jigsaw in check? And if Saw VI loses the weekend box office to Paranormal Activity (which early estimates are indicating), what will this mean for the Saw franchise moving forward?

Whether or not you liked Paranormal Activity, you really do have to give it props for being one of the most successful underdog flicks in history. Do you realize that if the film somehow manages to pull in a total of $100 million at the box office (after this weekend it could climb above $60 million), it will become the most successful Paramount film in modern history? As Deadline Hollywood points out, the movie was acquired for $300k and the studio only spent around $10 million on prints and advertising, so, says a DH "insider", "this will be the best return Paramount has ever had." I'd like to repeat that because it's definitely worth repeating: This little indie film could give Paramount the best return it has ever had. Remarkable.



More on Paranormal Activity
Interview with Oren Peli, writer-director of Paranormal Activity
So what was Paranormal Activity's original ending?

Things went wild this past weekend as Where the Wild Things Are took top honors. The action flick Law Abiding Citizen also premiered well and Paranormal Activity continues to astound, taking third place while only playing in 760 theaters. Here's the top five:

1. Where the Wild Things Are: $32.7 million
2. Law Abiding Citizen: $21 million
3. Paranormal Activity: $19.6 million
4. Couples Retreat: $17.2 million
5. The Stepfather: $11.6 million

Four new releases this week, three of which will be putting the Halloween spirit into people.

Amelia
What's It All About: Hilary Swank and Richard Gere star in this biopic of aviator Amelia Earhart who disappeared during an attempt to fly around the world.
Why It Might Do Well: A historical drama is a pretty good counter programmer to all the horror and fantasy movies currently in release.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Right now we're looking at 17% at Rottentomatoes.com.
Number of Theaters: 800
Prediction: $6 million

Astro Boy
What's It All About: Adaptation of the classic anime (that itself takes a page from Pinocchio) about a robot boy with incredible powers.
Why It Might Do Well: 73% at Rottentomatoes.com ain't too shabby.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Will this character that originated in the 1950s translate well in the twenty-first century?
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $16 million

All the hand-wringing over whether or not Where the Wild Things Are is "for children," or "kid-tested, mother-approved," or whatever, turned out to be mostly academic: the kids didn't go. And the movie cleaned up anyway. According to figures cited by this David Germain piece in the AP, parents with kids made up only 27% of the $32.5 million Wild Things earned this weekend. The prevalence of adults (who I gather grew up on the book, unlike the current generation of tykes) probably bodes well, or at least better, for the box office staying power of the divisive, challenging film.

Gerard Butler's Law Abiding Citizen opened to $21.3 million in second place -- the highest ever opening gross for young distributor Overture. That may have been at the expense of Screen Gems' The Stepfather, the unscreened, bloodless PG-13 horror remake that debuted in fifth place with $12.3 million. That's still not bad given the total lack of expensive name-brand talent involved.

Paranormal Activity continued its slow roll-out charge, adding 600 screens (760 total) and adding $20 million to its gross. (That's around $26,000 per screen.) How much the idiotic "we-won't-open-in-your-city-unless-you-go-online-and-DEMAND-it" shtick had to do with this is debatable. (Would the movie have made even more had Paramount just held the film back and then put it into wide release this weekend?) But the "breakout hit" label is difficult to resist at this point. Good job everybody.

Down at number 21, the omnibus New York, I Love You goes on the probably-should-have-kept-it-in-the-arthouses category. Its predecessor-of-sorts, Paris Je T'aime, expanded to around 200 screens rather than starting there, and did considerably better than New York will, foreign language handicap and all.

The full top 10 after the jump.

The comedy Couples Retreat led the box office this past weekend, but the big surprise was the scare flick Paranormal Activity which managed to take number four while playing only 160 theaters. Here's the top five:

1. Couples Retreat: $34.3 million
2. Zombieland: $14.8 million
3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: $11.5 million
4. Paranormal Activity: $7.9 million
5. Toy Story / Toy Story 2: $7.7 million

We've got three new films going into wide release this Friday:

Law Abiding Citizen
What's It All About: Jaimie Foxx is the District Attorney and Gerard Butler is the crazed man determined to avenge himself upon the legal system that allowed his wife and daughter's murderers to go free.
Why It Might Do Well: Foxx is an Oscar-winner.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The plot feels like a recycled Death Wish for the twenty-first century.
Number of Theaters: 2,700
Prediction: $11 million


Where the Wild Things Are
What's It All About: Spike Jonze directs this feature adaptation of the classic children's book.
Why It Might Do Well: The book has been around since 1963 and has built quite a following.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Will kids go for the cool but non-digital characters?
Number of Theaters: 3,500
Prediction: $36 million