Red Sox win, rest of country goes to "Saw IV"

"Saw IV" dominated the Halloween box office much as Terry's collection of boys and men dominated the Coors Field crew. Despite being reasonably lousy, the latest adventure of Jigsaw rolled up $32 million on a slowish weekend at the box office. That's very much on par with "Saw III" ($34 million last year) and "Saw II" ($31 million in 2005). (The original "Saw" made $18 mill in 2004.) So you can pretty much count the core constituency of this franchise down to the last hooky-playing middle schooler.

"Dan in Real Life" made $12 million playing at 1,900 theaters, about equal to what "The Family Stone" did in the same slot two years ago. I doubt it would have made that much without the presence of Steve Carell in the lead; smart marketing on this one, putting Carell front and center in the ads but with a sensitive, sideways, sick-puppy expression that made clear this was no "Evan Almighty." The second week numbers for "30 Days of Night" were anemic, dropping 58 percent from the opening weekend. Among limited releases, Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" did bang-up business at two theaters -- $37,000 per -- which bodes well for its expansion to other cities on November 9.

Further numbers from Box Office Mojo and Leonard Klady.