Despite being clobbered by Halloween on Friday, Disney's smash hit kidpic High School Musical 3 once again led the North American box office in its second weekend winning the frame by a comfortable margin. The squeaky clean teens were followed by a trio of R-rated films that fought fiercely over the runnerup spot. Final grosses to be reported on Monday could lead to a change in the standings, but based on official studio estimates Kevin Smith's raunchy new comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno debuted in second, the horror sequel Saw V slipped a notch to third, and Clint Eastwood's missing child drama Changeling starring Angelina Jolie expanded nationally and placed fourth with the best average in the top ten. With the Pumpkin holiday keeping folks away from multiplexes on Friday and the lack of any breakout new releases, overall ticket sales took a nosedive with the top ten pulling in just over $70M falling 39% from last weekend and dropping 41% from a year ago.
Moviegoers couldn't stay away from the singing and dancing students of High School Musical 3 making the franchise flick the top movie in the land with an estimated $15M over the weekend. Down a steep 64%, the Zac Efron pic pushed its stellar ten-day total to $61.8M. Disney has now ruled the box office over four of the last five weekends thanks to its one-two punch of G-rated family films HSM3 and Beverly Hills Chihuahua which still remained in the top ten this weekend.
Starring: Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Bart Johnson, Alyson Reed, Olesya Rulin, Chris Warren, Ryne Sanborn, Kaycee Stroh, Matt Prokop, Justin Martin, Jemma McKenzie-Brown
Director: Kenny Ortega
Screenwriter: Peter Barsocchini
Producer: William R. Borden, Barry Rosenbush
Composer: David Lawrence