'Wild Things' tames weekend box office

"Where The Wild Things Are," a live action rendering of a beloved children's book, topped the North American box office in its first weekend of release, preliminary figures showed Sunday.

The screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 1963 picture book about a rebellious boy who sails to a fantasyland of cuddly monsters earned 32.5 million dollars in its debut.

"Law Abiding Citizen," a thriller about a man bent on avenging the deaths of his slain family, was a distant second place, earning 21.3 million dollars.

In third place was low-budget supernatural thriller "Paranormal Activity," which climbed a spot from last week's fourth place and earned 20.2 million dollars -- almost triple the previous weekend's take, according to box officer tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The film, reportedly made for a paltry 11,000 dollars, has earned comparisons to 1999 hit "The Blair Witch Project" and focuses on supernatural goings-on in a suburban San Diego house.

Last week's number one movie, "Couple's Retreat" starring comic favorites Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman, scored 18 million dollars.

In fifth place was the horror flick "The Stepfather," the remake of a 1987 thriller, which earned 12.3 million dollars.

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," the animated tale of an island rained on by junk food, fell to sixth place, earning 8.1 million dollars in box office receipts.

Tongue-in-cheek comedy "Zombieland" came in seventh place, earning 7.8 million dollars.

Falling to the eighth spot was the 3-D format re-release of popular Pixar cartoons "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2," which took in a combined three million dollars. The films came ahead of the much-anticipated "Toy Story 3," due out next year.

Futuristic Bruce Willis action film "Surrogates" -- about people living their lives through sexy robot replicas of themselves -- took ninth place with 1.92 million dollars.

In 10th place was "The Invention of Lying," which stars British comedian Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner as a couple living in an alternative reality where nobody ever lies. The film took in 1.9 million dollars.