Michael Jackson’s This Is It led the box office for a second straight day on Thursday with a daily gross of $3.76 million. The concert documentary from Sony was down 49 percent from its opening day performance on Wednesday. That represented a solid hold, especially since the film’s opening day gross was inflated from its midnight screenings. This Is It has grossed $11.21 million in its first two days of release. While that represents a significantly weaker than expected start, This Is It could still pick up greatly over the weekend from the simple fact that midweek movie-going attendance is relatively soft in October. However, This Is It will also face a major hurdle on Saturday, as Halloween usually hurts the box office of non-horror films when it falls on the weekend.

Paramount’s Paranormal Activity was up a healthy 11 percent from Wednesday to remain in second place with $1.63 million. The R-rated horror film was aided yesterday by both the approaching Halloween holiday and by the decrease in attendance for This Is It (most other films in wide release were likely aided by both of those factors as well). Paranormal Activity was the week’s highest grossing film with $27.76 million, which represented a 3 percent increase over last week. Paranormal Activity has grossed $68.24 million through five weeks and is set to see another strong performance this weekend, especially with the addition of another 457 locations.

Law Abiding Citizen remained in third place with $0.93 million. The R-rated action-thriller from Overture was up 2 percent from Wednesday and down 39 percent from last Thursday. Law Abiding Citizen finished in fourth place for the week with $16.48 million. That represented a 40 percent slide and brings the film’s two-week total to a better than expected $44.08 million.

Where the Wild Things Are held steady in fourth place with $0.77 million. Warner’s expensive adaption of the popular children’s book was up 7 percent from Wednesday, but still down 50 percent from last Thursday. For the week Where the Wild Things Are finished in third with $17.18 million, but that was down a very discouraging 57 percent from the film’s opening weekend performance. Where the Wild Things Are has grossed $56.72 million in 14 days.

The disappointing start for Lionsgate’s Saw VI continued on Thursday as the horror sequel slid one spot to finish in sixth. Saw VI grossed $0.69 million for the day, which brings the film’s one-week total to a lackluster $17.26 million. That places Saw VI 52 percent behind the pace of last year’s Saw V.