“Hotel Transylvania” enjoyed a record opening this weekend, earning $43 million and apparently validating Sony’s long-running deal with Adam Sandler after the disappointing performance of “Jack and Jill” and “That’s My Boy”.

(The fact that “Hotel Transylvania” is a 3D animated monster comedy pitched at children, rather than Sandler’s usual half-assed middle-aged slacker thing, need not be considered here.)

Also encouraging: Rian Johnson’s “Looper” came in second with $21.2 million; hopefully word of mouth will keep it aloft next week, though it’ll have a serious challenge in “Pitch Perfect“. The Anna Kendrick glee-club comedy placed sixth with $5.2 million on just 335 screens, indicating a much larger audience awaits it when it goes wide on Friday. (And then there’s Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie”, another monsters-for-kids project looming large over the box office.)

“End of Watch“, “Trouble with the Curve” and “House at the End of the Street” remained locked in their box-office blood match, earning $8 million, $7.5 million and $7.2 million to rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively. But they are bad, and you should not bother with them.