Halloween slashes into the US box office

Despite a torrent of dodgy reviews and the fact that it’s really not very good, Rob Zombie’s reboot of Halloween was able to stalk US audiences and send them screaming into cinemas for a record take of $31 million. What record you ask? That would be the Labor Day Holiday over in the US, which was previously held by The Transporter 2. Admittedly, it’s not much of a record, but we’re sure Dimension will be shouting all about it.

Second place was Superbad, which continues to draw in the crowds, made $15.6 million this weekend and has now managed to grab $92.4 million in total. That $100 million line is in sight – the boys should be across by the end of next week. That meant that a new comedy – ping pong sports/kung fu parody Balls Of Fury – had to settle for third place for what looks like a disappointing $16.7 million, though the folks at Rogue Pictures will be happy as it’s their biggest opener ever.

The Bourne Ultimatum, meanwhile, leapt over $200 million to hit $202.6 million in its fifth week in release. And Mr Bean’s Holiday held surprisingly well for a movie with little attention in the US, dropping just two places to sixth with $8 million for the weekend and a $21 million total to date.

At seventh, The Nanny Diaries found itself treading water in the middle of the charts, with a running total of $16.5 million. There was bad for the new arrival Death Sentence, with Kevin Bacon getting revenge only able to tempt $5.2 million worth of tickets from US moviegoers.

And so to the bottom of the charts, Where Jason Statham’s latest – War – dropped down from fifth to ninth and made $5.1 million this week. It has a total of $17.9 million in the bank so far. Finally, Stardust sits at 10th, with a current total of $31.9 million.