Michael Jackson’s This Is It was able to hold of Paramount’s Paranormal Activity to lead the domestic box office over Halloween weekend. The anticipated concert documentary grossed $23.23 million for the weekend and $34.44 million during its first five days of release. Although that was well below the pre-release expectations of most, the Sony release made up for that with a strong estimated international start of $68.5 million (bringing the film’s five-day worldwide start to roughly $103 million). Michael Jackson has been far more popular outside of North America for many years, so the fact that This Is It performed much better internationally comes as no surprise. The film’s domestic total for the weekend also topped Sunday’s studio estimate by $1.93 million after a stronger than expected Sunday performance.

The opening weekend performance for This Is It also looks more respectable when considering that historically the box office for non-horror films has suffered when Halloween falls on the weekend. Despite the slower than expected domestic start, This Is It still delivered the largest ever Halloween Day gross with $7.08 million (topping the previous mark of $5.39 million set by Saw back in 2004) and the largest ever Halloween weekend debut when Halloween occurred during a weekend (topping the $20.04 million start of Ray, also in 2004). Through five days, This Is It is running 48 percent ahead of the pace of Ray (which was released just months after the death of Ray Charles). Sony has already extended the domestic theatrical window of This Is It through the end of Thanksgiving weekend, which obviously helps the film’s prospects going forward.

Paranormal Activity continued to impress with a second place finish of $16.39 million. The ultra low-budget horror film was down just 22 percent from last weekend, as it was helped by Halloween, an expansion into an additional 459 locations and from serving as the most popular alternative for moviegoers not interested in This Is It. If it wasn’t for This Is It, Paranormal Activity would have set a new Halloween Day record with its Saturday gross of $6.58 million. Paranormal Activity has grossed a tremendous $84.63 million through 38 days. However, with Halloween now behind it (which resulted in a sharp 42 percent daily decline on Sunday) and Universal’s The Fourth Kind and Warner’s The Box both opening on Friday, Paranormal Activity could lose a lot of momentum next weekend.

Overture’s Law Abiding Citizen was up one spot from last weekend to finish in third. The action-thriller starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler grossed $7.40 million, which was down a solid 40 percent from last weekend. Law Abiding Citizen passed the $50 million mark on Sunday and has a good chance of clearing the $70 million mark by the end of its domestic run.

Despite boasting Halloween appeal, both Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are and Lionsgate’s Saw VI experienced huge declines over Halloween weekend. Where the Wild Things Are was down 58 percent with a weekend gross of $5.93 million while Saw VI dropped a massive 63 percent from its already disappointing debut. Where the Wild Things Are did pass the $60 million mark over the weekend, while Saw VI has grossed just $22.53 million through ten days.

Although Halloween falling on Saturday clearly took a toll on this weekend’s box office, Sunday’s grosses for a number of films were ultimately stronger than estimated by the studios on Sunday. As a result this weekend’s combined box office of just under $91 million was able to top the same weekend last year by 3 percent. This weekend’s box office was down 22 percent from last weekend, but business should pick back up again next weekend with the beginning of the holiday movie season.

BOXOFFICE.com's Weekly Anticipation Index with early predictions can be read here.