After topping the box office last weekend, Paranormal Activity slowed its momentum and settled into second place this week, finally overshadowed by the Michael Jackson concert movie, This Is It. The Jackson movie, riding the notoriety of his untimely death this past summer, hauled in $21.3 million in weekend receipts and had a total haul since its early opening of $32.5 million. This Is It is an even huger hit globally, raking in over $68 million overseas to open with a $101+ million weekend.

Paranormal Activity still had a better per-screen average than even This Is It, and added $16.5 million to its second-place total. Considering the movie cost about $15,000.00 to make … yes, you read that right … its six-week total of $84.7 million is simply outstanding and one of the best rags-to-riches stories in filmmaking this year. Certainly it now has to rank right up there with The Blair Witch Project. However, I still like the earlier cut of the movie the studio was considering, with the more naturalistic ending. Oh well.

Nothing else cracked the $10.0 million mark, meaning that moviegoers must be taking weight loss pills that work in terms of their moviegoing habits; after two straight weeks of Top 12 box office being over $100 million, this week it dropped significantly to around $84 million or so.

Several films had flopped … or, to be politically correct, “underperformed” … despite lots of good intentions. The most notable example is Where the Wild Things Are, which cost $100 million to make and market, but has barely cleared $60 million and has dropped out of the Top 5 in only its third week.

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant was hoping to suck some pre-New Moon: The Twilight Saga-release blood from moviegoers, but in its second week is a distant 10th place, barely clearing $10.5 million against a $40 million budget.

Other movies bleeding and mortally wounded include Astro Boy ($10.8 million in two weeks, against a $65 million budget); Amelia ($8 million in two weeks against a $40 million budget); the Bruce Willis SF thriller Surrogates ($38 million against an $80 million budget); and even GI Joe: Rise of Cobra ($150 million against a $175 million budget and currently dead in the water).

With all these flops, it makes the indy success and slow-build campaign of Paranormal Activity even more amazing.