It’s not all that uncommon for a big movie to open in the U.S. before it opens overseas, but it’s rare that a movie (let alone a potential blockbuster from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson) should open around the world nearly a month and a half before it hits North America. Apparently, there’s a reason for it in this case.

‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn‘, which won’t be released in the U.S. until Dec. 21st, opened with a strong overseas-only box office total of $55.8 million. ‘Tintin’ is based on a beloved comic book series from the Belgian artist Hergé. Although huge in Europe and other parts of the world, the character is almost completely unknown in the United States. My buddies from the U.K. claim that ‘Tintin’ is a gem that simply hasn’t made its way to America yet. Hopefully, they’re right. With Spielberg, Jackson, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat attached, the movie has a lot going for it.

A different animated family flick dominated the U.S. box office. ‘Puss in Boots‘ opened with a strong $34 million, just enough to beat the previous Halloween weekend record holder ‘Saw III’, but still a few million shy of studio predictions. Considering that the movie opened against the final game of the World Series and a major storm that crippled the East Coast, the studio is more than pleased with these weekend totals. The film only opened in a couple of international markets, and will be rolled out to the rest of the world in November and December.

‘Paranormal Activity 3‘ fell to the #2 spot and dropped 65% in its second weekend. Its $18.5 million weekend brings the film’s domestic ten-day total to $81.3 million.

Justin Timberlake’s futuristic sci-fi thriller ‘In Time‘ didn’t make too much noise. It earned $12 million to debut in the #3 spot. While the $35-million film didn’t exactly score this weekend, it at least did better than Johnny Depp’s ‘The Rum Diary‘, which opened behind ‘Footloose’ in the fifth spot with only $5 million. Roland Emmerich’s ‘Anonymous‘ opened with a healthy $1 million on only 265 screens, which isn’t bad for the first tier of a platform release.

Notable duds of the weekend are ‘The Three Musketeers‘, which fell from fourth to seventh place in its second weekend; ‘Johnny English Reborn‘, which fell from eighth to eleventh in its second weekend; ‘The Thing‘, which fell from ninth to fifteenth in its third weekend; and ‘The Big Year‘, which fell from twelfth to eighteenth in its third weekend.

Top 10:

1. ‘Puss in Boots’ (DreamWorks) – $34,000,000

2. ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ (Paramount) – $18,530,000

3. ‘In Time’ (Fox) – $12,000,000

4. ‘Footloose’ (Paramount) – $5,400,000

5. ‘The Rum Diary’ (FilmDistrict) – $5,010,631

6. ‘Real Steel’ (Buena Vista) – $4,700,000

7. ‘The Three Musketeers’ (Summit) – $3,500,000

8. ‘The Ides of March’ (Sony) – $2,700,000

9. ‘Moneyball’ (Sony) – $2,400,000

10. ‘Courageous’ (TriStar) – $1,800,000