Puss in Boots purred its way to the top of the box office for the second straight week. Taking in $33 million in its second weekend, the animated spin-off from the Shrek franchise held off the highly publicized teaming of Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller in Tower Heist.
Heist was only able to steal $25.1 million in receipts, well below what many studio analysts predicted the film would make.
Christmas cheer was in third with A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas. The third installment in the series took in $13.1 million.
The horror film Paranormal Activity 3 took fourth place with $8.3 million, lifting its three-week total to $95.3 million. The Justin Timberlake science fiction film In Time was No. 5 with $7.7 million.
Final figures are due Monday.
Revenues remain down about 4% from last year, while attendance is down about 5% from the same period in 2010, Hollywood.com says.