HispanicBusiness

Animated spinoff Puss in Boots leapt to the top of the box office this weekend.

The Antonio Banderas-voiced cartoon scored $34 million, according to studio estimates from box-office trackers Hollywood.com.

The debut was a solid opening and enough to capture the best debut for a movie opening on Halloween weekend, eclipsing Saw III's record $33.6 million in 2006.

Still, some analysts expected the Shrek-inspired film to bring in more than $40 million.

Gitesh Pandya of Boxofficeguru.com says the title benefited from commercials that were "funny and effective, and the marketplace has no major 'kidpic' right now to provide competition." He says that Banderas is a solid attraction for Latino audiences and that IMAX and 3-D screens provided "extra dollars."

Pamela McClintock of The Hollywood Reporter notes that "it's almost unheard of for a family film to open over Halloween, but Paramount and DreamWorks Animation wanted to give Puss in Boots more breathing room before a deluge of Thanksgiving family titles opening later in November."

Critics and fans were solidly behind the cartoon. According to the movie review site Rottentomatoes.com, 81 percent of critics gave the movie a thumbs-up, and 83 percent of fans gave it a thumbs-up.

Horror film Paranormal Activity 3 took second place with $18.5 million, which brings its total to $81.3 million.

In Time, the sci-fi thriller starring Justin Timberlake, opened at No. 3 with $12 million, meeting most analysts' expectations.

The musical remake Footloose was fourth with $5.4 million. The redo has earned $38.4 million in three weekends.

The only other significant newcomer, Johnny Depp's R-rated comedy The Rum Diary, met the low end of expectations with $5 million, good for fifth place.

Final figures are due today.

Revenue remains down 4 percent from last year, and attendance is off 6 percent, according to Hollywood.com.