Who knew a 10-sentence long story could do so well?

It may have taken over three years for Where the Wild Things Are to officially debut, but the long journey was apparently worth the wait. The Spike Jonze project, which was once rumored to be too scary for children, finally unfolded over the weekend and soared to first place. The Maurice Sendak adaptation, which earned approximately $32.7 million, also gave Warner Bros. its best October open ever.

Even though Gerard Butler didn’t bother to promote Law Abiding Citizen during his recent Saturday Night Live stint, the film managed to survive on its own. The actioner, which also starred Jamie Foxx, raked in just over $21 million and won a close race for 2nd place. Meanwhile, word-of-mouth hit Paranormal Activity grossed another $19.6 million and moved up one rung to the third spot.

1. Where the Wild Things Are, Warner Bros., $32,695,407 (avg. $8754)
2. Law Abiding Citizen, Overture Films, $21,039,502 (avg. $7280)
3. Paranormal Activity, Dreamworks, $19,617,650 (avg. $25,711)
4. Couples Retreat, Universal, $17,227,390 (avg. $5725)
5. The Stepfather, Sony, $11,581,586 (avg. $4236)
6. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sony, $8,017,871 (avg. $2640)
7. Zombieland, Sony, $7,616,939 (avg. $2402)
8. Toy Story/Toy Story 2, Disney, $3,016,580 (avg. $2026)
9. Surrogates, Touchstone, $1,917,315 (avg. $824)
10. The Invention of Lying, Warner Bros., $1,907,398 (avg. $1175)

(You can review last week’s numbers here.)