John Carpenter, the master of Halloween, has rocked up another number one film for the weekend. But in the USA, Halloween is such a big event, that people are out trick or treating or having Halloween parties, rather than watching movies. Anyway, to the box office guru's words:

Straight into the box office gurus summary:

(figures in brackets are cumulative totals)

1 Vampires $ 9,200,000

2 Pleasantville $6,600,000 ($17,952,000)

3 Practical Magic $5,200,000 ($33,501,000)

4 Antz $4,100,000 ($67,383,000)

5 Bride of Chucky $4,000,000 ($26,766,000)

6 Rush Hour $3,375,000 ($122,107,000)

7 Beloved $2,600,000 ($18,656,000)

8 Soldier $2,580,000 ($10,973,000)

9 What Dreams May Come $2,400,000 ($50,663,000)

10 Apt Pupil $1,700,000 ($6,462,000)

THIS WEEKEND With Halloween falling on a Saturday, the busiest day at cinemas, box office sales took a tumble and fell to one of the lowest levels of the year. But leading the charge with a number one debut was Sony's horror-western pic Vampires which sank its teeth into an estimated $9.2M gross. Directed by horror legend John Carpenter, and starring James Woods, Vampires landed in 1,793 theaters and averaged a bloodsuckingly strong $5,131 per coffin. That gives the film a higher opening average than the season's two other fright films Urban Legend and Bride of Chucky, and gives Sony its fourth top spot debut of the year tying the studio with New Line for the most in 1998.

Jeff Blake, distribution head of Sony Pictures, stated that Vampires had a very good opening considering the fact that Halloween Saturday was brutal on the whole industry. The picture played well in both big cities and suburban markets and saw a 57/43 male/female split among opening weekend ticket buyers. Blake also noted that the debut performance of Vampires marks a new high for director John Carpenter beating the $8.68M launch of his last film Escape From L.A. in 1996. With a cost of $16M, Vampires was produced by Largo Entertainment and acquired for domestic distribution by Sony.

Last week's favorite film, Pleasantville, slipped one notch to second with an impressive $6.6M, according to estimates. Off just 26%, the New Line fantasy comedy has collected a colorful $18M in ten days and is showing durability at the box office. Easily experiencing the lowest decline of any film in the top ten, and one of the smallest of the fall season, Pleasantville seems on the road to a long-lasting shelflife and could be headed for a $45-50M cume by the end of its run.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman placed third over the Halloween weekend with Practical Magic which grossed an estimated $5.2M over the Friday-to-Sunday period. After 17 days, the witch pic has collected $33.5M in its cauldron and is on course to fly to about $50M.

Antz got stomped as kids were busy trick-or-treating and took in an estimated $4.1M, taking fourth place, and boosting its cume to $67.4M. But life is still a picnic for DreamWorks as the bug film has become the highest-grossing non-Disney animated picture ever surpassing Paramount's Beavis and Butthead Do America which rocked to the tune of $63M. Rounding out the top five, ghouls and goblins spent an estimated $4M on Bride of Chucky bringing its 17-day dowry to $26.8M.

In their sophomore weekends, Soldier and Apt Pupil were clobbered. Kurt Russell was stuck peeling potatoes as his futuristic action film commanded just $2.6M, according to estimates, for a disturbing decline of 60%. With only $11M in ten days, look for Soldier to take home a dishonorable discharge with a final cume of around $15-20M, making it yet another expensive flop for Warners, and the action star's lowest-grossing film of the decade. Sony's Apt Pupil failed to raise its grade point average falling 53% to a second weekend gross of an estimated $1.7M. The Bryan Singer movie has taken in $6.5M thus far and should finish its semester with roughly $10M.

Overall, dropoffs were rather high for most films as Halloween activities distracted moviegoers cutting into total box office revenue. The last time the spooky holiday fell on a Saturday was in 1992 when Under Siege led the field with $6.2M and ticket sales for the top ten titles shrank by 23.3% compared to the previous weekend. An even bloodier fate is haunting this year's Halloween frame as estimated grosses for the top ten are currently down 30% from last weekend which was not a very strong period either. The top ten cume of $41.7M is the second worst of 1998 and the fourth-lowest of the last 24 months.

Also, some studios have admittedly not taken into account the effect, if any, that Fox's network television debut of The Lost World on Sunday night will have on moviegoing at theaters. If the Steven Spielberg blockbuster garners dinosized ratings, it will keep many movie fans at home for a free film rather than at the multiplexes and could lead to many studio estimates coming down on Monday when actual weekend grosses are tallied.

Falling out of the top ten was Paramount's hit comedy A Night at the Roxbury which laughed up an estimated $1.2M and now stands at $28.3M. Based on the popular Saturday Night Live skit, Roxbury has enjoyed a healthy run at the box office and has exceeded most industry expectations. The market's other horror film, Urban Legend, held up nicely over the pumpkin weekend dipping just 21% from last weekend and has amassed a scary $35.1M to date.

In limited release, New Line Cinema launched two very different films. Living Out Loud, starring Holly Hunter, Danny Devito, and Queen Latifah, saw a noisy start grossing an estimated $142,700. Platforming in New York and Los Angeles in eight houses, Loud averaged a promising $17,838 per site. The neo-Nazi drama American History X averaged a good $8,706 per theater earning an estimated $148,000 in 17 locations. The film's harsh subject matter will make it difficult to find a sizable audience in the coming weeks. American History X gradually expands into more markets over the next few weeks while Living Out Loud goes nationwide next weekend.