Paranormal Activity led the daily box office for a second straight day on Thursday. The extremely low-budget horror film from Paramount was up a healthy 17 percent from Wednesday with a daily gross of $1.91 million. That is an encouraging sign for the film as it expands into an additional 1,182 locations this weekend. For the week Paranormal Activity finished in third place with $26.92 million, which was up 118 percent from the previous week (when it was playing in 603 fewer locations). Paranormal Activity passed the $40 million mark yesterday and should pass the $60 million mark by the end of the weekend.

Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are remained in second place with $1.55 million. The big-screen adaptation of the popular children’s book was down 1 percent from Wednesday, which marked a significant improvement from the 11 percent daily slides it experienced each of the previous two days. Where the Wild Things Are was easily the highest grossing film of the week with a seven-day start of $39.54 million. However, the Spike Jonze directed film has shown early signs that suggest it could fall off fairly quickly throughout its run.

Law Abiding Citizen held steady in third with $1.53 million. Overture’s R-rated action-thriller trailed Where the Wild Things Are by just $19,436 for the day (for Monday through Thursday it trailed Wild Things by $278,855). Law Abiding Citizen was essentially unchanged from Wednesday’s performance and held up well throughout most of the midweek. Law Abiding Citizen finished in second place for the week with $27.60 million and is in good shape to experience a solid second weekend hold.

Universal’s Couples Retreat remained in fourth place with $1.11 million. That represented a 1 percent increase from Wednesday, but the PG-13 comedy was still down 50 percent from last Thursday as it was unable to regain momentum during the midweek after experiencing a 50 percent slide last weekend. With that said, Couples Retreat has still grossed a better than expected $67.12 million in its first two weeks.

Zombieland rounded out the day’s top five with $0.59 million. Sony’s horror comedy was up 4 percent from Wednesday and down 48 percent from last Thursday. Zombieland grossed $9.98 million for the week, which was down 51 percent. Zombieland clearly took a hit this week from the new films in the marketplace, but has still grossed a very strong $63.01 million in 21 days.

Sony also claimed sixth place for the day as The Stepfather grossed $0.57 million. The PG-13 horror-thriller from Screen Gems was up a noteworthy 11 percent from Wednesday as it continues to serve as an alternative to the R-rated fare currently in the marketplace. The Stepfather grossed $13.85 million for the week, which was towards the high end of expectations, but also a bit soft for a PG-13 thriller or horror film from Screen Gems.