It sure seems US audiences love the idea of pranks in 3D, as not only has the third Jackass movie significantly outperformed the first weekend of both its predecessors, but it's $50 million opening also set a new record for the first weekend gross of an October release, beating Scary Movie 3's $48.1 million. It's a pretty impressive achievement for a decade-old franchise, which many had written off when the idea of a third movie was first floated - however it seems the 3D gimmich really drew people in, with three-dimensional screenings accounting for 90% of the movie's take.
The only other new entry in the top 10 was the Bruce Willis action-comedy Red, which scored $22.5 million. That may not seems a massive amount, but it's actually better than a lot of similarly pitched films, such as The Losers and The Killers, have made this year.
Further down the list, Clint Eastwood's new film, Hereafter, opened on only six screens, and scored $231,000. That's certainly a decent bow for such a limited release, and marked by far the highest per screen average on the box office list, which bodes well for the film's future as it expands onto more screens in the coming weeks.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of October 15th-17th.