Weekend US box office report: Michael Jackson's This Is It dances off with the weekend

Michael Jackson's planned string of comeback gigs in London never materialized, but his filmed rehearsals have proved as lucrative as any string of concerts could have possibly been, if not more so. Michael Jackson's This Is It, the full and awkward title of the King of Pop's last concert recording, took in big business this weekend, bringing in an impressive $21.3 million dollars at the box office. Since its Wednesday opening, the picture has taken in $32.5 million. Once again, an early death is the recipe for a big comeback.

As expected, it was a pretty big weekend for horror. Even though a lot of the audience was out partying, nerds like me still managed to get to the theater once or twice. Paranormal Activity continues to perform very strongly, taking second this weekend on $16.5 million. Saw VI took a big tumble, to fifth from second on $5.56 million, and Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (tenth place, $2.8 million) barely held onto a spot in the top ten, but The Stepfather managed another consistent weekend, rising to seventh place on $3.4 million. Zombieland fell just outside the top ten with $2.6 million. I caught it again this weekend and can tell you that it holds up to repeated viewings. The much-hyped Halloween re-release of Halloween II managed just $475,000 in 1,083 theaters, suggesting that re-release wasn't the best idea.

Among holdovers, Law Abiding Citizen continues to do pretty well in the multiplex, with the Jamie Foxx thriller taking third this weekend on $7.3 million. I've heard this one is actually pretty good, but I'm not sure how much faith I put in the movie judgment of the person telling me this. I've got very little interest in checking it out myself, so it'll wait for the video.

Couples Retreat also continues to hang on. The comedy grossed another $6.097 million this weekend, good for fourth. So far, the comedy has grossed over $86 million in the States, turning the movie into a minor hit. Not too shabby for such a tired premise!

Where The Wild Things Are isn't weathering its critical beating very well. The movie has brought in $61.8 million in its three weeks of release, but it drops to sixth this week on only 5.081 million bucks at the box office. For a movie that cost $100 million to produce (not counting advertisements and commercial time), that's a bad sign. It's not going to be as big of a bomb as Astro Boy (eighth place, $3.035 million), but it's going to need good DVD sales. Astro Boy has managed a paltry $10.8 million in two weeks, and cost $65 million (at least) to make. Ouch.

To reiterate just how poorly Astro Boy is doing, ninth-place Amelia took in $3 million this weekend in 2000 less screens. I'm not even sure I know what Amelia is and I definitely have not seen any blaring ads for it.

To make up for last weekend's underwhelming release period, studios are really turning it on this weekend. Not only are we getting another horror/thriller in the form of The Box (with Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, and Frank Langella), we're also getting roll-outs of super-creepy alien movie The Fourth Kind, the fake Cohen Brothers movie The Men Who Stare At Goats, and of course, our first Christmas movie of the season.

It's only November, and we're already getting Jim Carrey's A Christmas Carol? Come on! I don't want to see that so soon! What are you monsters trying to do to me?! It's bad enough I started seeing Christmas adverts the week before Halloween, and now you've forced your Christmas movies into early November. What's next, The Little Drummer Boy in mid-August?