A new bout of “Paranormal Activity” hits the box office

The phenomenon continues. “Paranormal Activity 2” earned more than $40 million in box office receipts this weekend, earning it the distinction of the biggest weekend for a “supernatural” horror film (beating out “The Grudge”) and sending it on a path that will likely equal the $107-million domestic gross of the original.

1. Paranormal Activity 2 – $40.6 M (weekend) … $40.6 M (gross)
2. Jackass 3D – $21.3 M … $86.8 M
3. RED – $15 M … $43.5 M
4. Hereafter – $12 M … $12.3 M
5. The Social Network – $7.2 M … $72.9 M
6. Secretariat – $7 M … $37.4 M
7. Life as We Know It – $6.1 M … $37.6 M
8. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – $3.2 M … $50.2 M
9. The Town – $2.7 M  … $84.6 M
10. Easy A – $1.7 M … $54.7 M

Another successful sequel guarantees the beginning of a franchise that will likely become the next big annual horror event after Jigsaw and the “Saw” series bids farewell next weekend (barring any very possible spin-offs).

The only other competitive new film was Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter,” whose $12 million was an improvement over his last film and Matt Damon collaboration’s opening, “Invictus,” which made just $8.6 million in its debut.

As anticipated, “Jackass 3-D” plummeted out of first place, earning just above $20 million, a loss of nearly 60 percent from last week. The other top-five finishers, “RED” and “The Social Network,” saw much tinier drops.

Strong returns from films like the ones above kept the box office just about the same as last week and even a tad higher. The fall has certainly seen the most amount of positively reviewed films of any season this year and this October certainly ranks up among all-time Octobers in terms of receipts.