Halloween fell on a Friday night and wreaked havoc with the box office, but the tween-friendly High School Musical 3 recovered from a 90% drop in business on Friday (the vast majority of its potential audience was out trick or treating), when it took in just $1.7 million, to earn $8.2 million on Saturday.  Overall HSM 3 took in an estimated $15 million over the weekend, a Halloween-aided 64% drop from its opening frame, but still good enough to top Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which earned an estimated $10.6 million, a typical opening for a Kevin Smith picture, but well below what star Seth Rogen has been stirring up lately.

Halloween didn’t appear to help the horror film Saw V, which had its grosses lopped off by a significant 66% and fell to number 3 with an estimated total of $10.1 million.  The torture-heavy Saw franchise appears to be fading, though the effect of a Friday night Halloween should be taken into account.  The Halloween effect certainly was responsible at least in part for the 41% decline from the same weekend last year, though there was certainly no new film with the clout of American Gangster, which debuted on the 44th weekend of 2007 with a chart-topping $43.6 million.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (Studio Estimates): Oct. 31--Nov. 2, 2008

Mention should be made of Clint Eastwood’s drama Changeling, which brought in an older audience and earned an estimated $9.4 million with a per theater average of $5,085, the highest average of any film in wide release.  With a CinemaScore of “A-,” Changeling could hang around for a while, and the Oscar buzz surrounding the film and the performance of Angelina Jolie, could also eventually provide Changeling with a solid cumulative for a period drama.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which earned $4.7 million and finished at number six, remained in the top ten for the fifth straight week and remains on course for the $100 million mark.  Eagle Eye, the other fall film with a chance to make $100 million, remained in the top ten for the sixth straight weekend and brought its cumulative to $92.5 million.