It seems that a hurricane and a flurry of sports may have dampened movie-goers eagerness to hit theaters this past weekend, the last before Halloween. Interestingly, the films faring best were holdovers, and the #1 film for the weekend, Ben Affleck's Argo, has nothing to do with the upcoming holiday. Hotel Transylvania took the #2 spot in its fifth week, and while it is definitely Halloween related, it's a family film and not the type of fright fest that has dominated the season in previous years. So the message may be: word of mouth=good, hackneyed horror sequel=bad (looking at you, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D). And then there is Cloud Atlas, which falls into neither camp. This literary adaptation received decent reviews, but may not be the game-changer its backers had hoped for. Nonetheless, fans of the novel and of the filmmakers involved will be keen to check it out, provided it's safe to go outside. And while it may be based on a book, all involved get points for originality and guts (as in courage).

Those eager for a true fall blockbuster need only wait until November 9, when Skyfall opens; it killed overseas, with a $77M debut.

Argo: $12.3M

Ben Affleck
WME - Patrick Whitesell

Alan Arkin
ICM Partners - Hildy Gottlieb
Prinipal Entertainment - Estelle Lasher

Bryan Cranston
UTA - Brett Hansen

Hotel Transylvania: $9.5M

Genndy Tartakovsky
WME - Jeff Gorin

Adam Sandler
WME - Adam Venit
Brillstein Entertainment Partners - Sandy Wernick

Andy Samberg
UTA - Jay Gassner
Mosaic - Julie Darmody

Cloud Atlas: $9.4M

Lana and Andy Wachowski
WME - David Wirtschafter
Circle of Confusion - Lawrence Mattis

Tom Tykwer
CAA - Bryan Lourd

Tom Hanks
CAA - Richard Lovett

Halle Berry
CAA - Kevin Huvane
Vincent Cirrincione Associates - Vincent Cirrincione

Paranormal Activity 4: $8.68M

Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
CAA - Rowena Arguelles

Katie Featherston
APA - Ryan Martin
New Wave - Paul Brown

Kathryn Newton
Innovative Artists - Abby Bluestone
Alchemy Entertainment - Allen Grifka

Taken 2: $8M

Olivier Megaton
WME - Robert Newman

Liam Neeson
CAA - Chris Andrews

Maggie Grace
UTA - Chris Hart

Source: Box Office Mojo