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The specialty box office roared to life as Lionsgate's "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" opened to $1.8 million from 18 locations for a record-breaking $100,000 per location average.

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM: If there's a Christmas-themed movie opening in November, then it's the official start of the holiday box office. In 1st place: Disney's A Christmas Carol. You may know it better as Charles Dickens' novel, but Disney had a problem with title rights, so now it's their pic. Hollywood predicted the 3-D family film to make at least $35M and possibly even $40M this weekend because of its wide release into 3,683 theaters domestically, including 2,035 3-D locations and 181 IMAX screens).

"Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run....

Sony's Michael Jackson documentary "This Is It" topped the Friday boxoffice with an estimated $7.9 million in U.S. and Canadian coin.

Sony's Michael Jackson documentary "This Is It" moonwalked to a stellar $7.4 million in estimated first-day boxoffice on Wednesday

The concert documentary set a box office record for an October Tuesday.

Hollywood is predicting that Sony's This Is It will have trouble making its expected $50 million in 5 days domestically based on Wednesday's $7.4 million opening including $2.2M from Tuesday night. Today will probably come in at the $4M range. And estimates now are for $20+M for Fri/Sat/Sun. So that comes out to a 5-day number in the low $30sM.

Micro-budget thriller hacks the box office crown from perennial pre-Halloween chart topper ''Saw'' ($14.8M)

The big story this weekend is the pre-Halloween box office -- the horror, the horror of it all -- and how Saw VI, which has been a disgusting but reliably performing franchise over the years for Lionsgate, was decimated Friday by Paranormal Activity -- despite the Paramount phenom playing in 1,100+ less theaters during its 5th week of release.

'Where the Wild Things Are' proved a bigger hit with adult audiences than family crowds as the adaptation of Maurice Sendak's children's book debuted at No. 1 with $32.5 million.