Spike Jonze’s magnificent “Where the Wild Things Are” was crowned king of the box-office this weekend, grossing a respectable $32.5 million … though the real success story is this week’s #3 picture, “Paranormal Activity”, which brought in $20.2 million in its first weekend in wide release.

This makes “Paranormal Activity”, which was produced for somewhere between $11,000 and $15,000, one of the most profitable movies ever made. Which is meaningless, really, except that if Oren Peli had a piece of the first-dollar gross, he’ll be in a position to buy Bolivia by the end of the month.

I’m curious to see what will happen to both pictures next week, though. They’re two of the most divisive movies of the year — check out the amusingly hostile comment exchanges that follow my reviews — and swirling word-of-mouth could generate strong numbers, or kill ’em in their cribs.

I strongly suggest that you see both of them — “Where the Wild Things Are” was one of the best films I’ve seen all year, and I found “Paranormal Activity” both clever and creepy. But then, it seems I’m one of those easily led hipster critics who’ll embrace anything with an emo soundtrack or clever viral marketing …

They hurt his family. Now he’s bringing their whole world down.

My latest MSN movie gallery celebrates the red-meat genre of the vengeance movie, where disproportionate violence is wreaked upon scumbags in the hopes of pursuing a teachable moment for cinema audiences.

I very nearly included “The Last House on the Left”, but then I would have had to find room for “The Virgin Spring”, and honestly, that comparison just doesn’t serve anyone.

This is one of the brightest weeks for movies in a long time. We’ve got two pictures opening that I’d rank with the year’s best, a couple of others that are very, very good … and some other stuff that doesn’t measure up at all. But you have to take the good with the bad, right?

“The Burning Plain“: Guillermo Arriaga’s directorial debut features all the everybody-hurts tropes that defined his screenplays for “Amores Perros”, “21 Grams” and “Babel”, only now they’re utterly lacking in visual artistry and emotional resonance. I feel sorriest for Charlize Theron, really. She’s only trying to help.

“The Damned United“: He’s already essayed Tony Blair, David Frost and Werewolf Spartacus, and now Michael Sheen captures both the accent and the self-destructive confidence of overmatched football manager Brian Clough in Tom Hooper’s thrilling sports movie, which isn’t really a sports movie at all.

“Eating Buccaneers”: Have you ever watched a trailer for a movie and thought, ‘oh, dear, that looks like a terrible idea”? That was my reaction to the preview for Bill Keenan’s comedy about a crashed planeload of corporate types struggling to survive in the wilderness. Susan’s review would seem to suggest it’s even worse than I’d feared.

“Good Hair“: Chris Rock examines the weird world of African-American hair care in this engaging documentary, which is worth the price of admission just for the story Al Sharpton tells about how James Brown badgered him into getting his hair coiffed.

“Law Abiding Citizen”: I’m not entirely certain how much time Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx spend glowering at each other in F. Gary Gray’s latest boom-boom actioner, but judging from the trailers, it’s an awful lot. Glenn found it tolerable; Kieran, less so.

“A Serious Man“: Joel and Ethan Coen take the search for God and turn it into a farce. Not everyone can get away with that; remember what happened when Darren Aronofsky tried? That poor man drilled a hole in his head! Seriously, though, this is a terrific movie. You should see it.

“The Stepfather”: Dylan Walsh steps in for Terry O’Quinn in the remake of Joseph Ruben’s 1987 chiller. No press screenings, which is a shame, because I’m kind of curious.

“Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam”: Omar Majeed’s documentary looks at the curious subculture of secular Islamic punk rock. Rad and Kieran are both raving about it. (See what I did there? Yeah, well, it’s been a long week.)

“Where the Wild Things Are“: Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers turn Maurice Sendak’s slender children’s novel into a raw emotional whirlwind, and one of the finest expressions of a child’s mind I’ve ever seen on film. I wish I’d seen this when I was ten; also, I no longer want to smack Eggers for “Away We Go” quite as much.

“Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg“: Aviva Kempner looks at the life and legacy of Gertrude Berg, the writer-producer who created (and starred in) “The Goldbergs”, America’s first openly Jewish radio show. Berg seems like a fascinating person, but Kempner doesn’t do her any favors with this one-note portrait.

Oh, and “Paranormal Activity” opens wide today. Prepare for a huge opening weekend, and a “Blair Witch”-scale backlash by Sunday …

Joel and Ethan Coen have this reputation as inscrutable, unknowable pranksters who make complex, unreadable movies, refuse to engage with serious questions and don’t suffer fools.

I only spent twenty minutes with them in a round-table situation at TIFF last month, but as far as I can tell, only the last thing is true — as you may glean from the opening of my interview with the brothers, which runs in the new issue of NOW.

Also in today’s paper, you’ll find my festival interviews with Michael Stuhlbarg, the star of the Coens’ wonderful new comedy, and Michael Sheen, who inhabits yet another celebrated Englishman in Tom Hooper’s “The Damned United”. It’s like September all over again!

Simon Pegg, star and co-writer of my beloved “Shaun of the Dead”, and all-around fine person, has written a lovely essay on the incongruity of the running zombie, and why the dead should shamble rather than sprint.

I don’t know how I managed to miss this when it ran in the Guardian last November — I actually have people for this sort of thing — but with “Zombieland” still tearing around the megaplex, it’s still quite relevant.

And no, I still haven’t seen “Dead Set” yet. It’s downstairs by the projector, waiting to be watched, but some part of me is waiting for a Blu-ray release.

Yes, I have people for that, too …

It might be Thanksgiving, but I’m still beavering away at my desk, putting together a DVD column and finishing a couple of other things for this week’s paper. And this evening, as everyone’s tucking into their turkey, I’ll be down at the AGO to introduce Allan King’s last documentary, “EMPZ 4 Life“, at 9 pm.

It’s screening in Cinematheque’s “Toronto on Film” series, which kicked off over the weekend — and which I wrote about in Friday’s web column on the NOW site. It’s an interesting program, and even if you’ve seen the movies before, it might be worth your while to check them out in this new context.

I mean, come on! “Videodrome“! On a big screen and everything!

Vince Vaughn may not be able to produce movies that anyone could call objectively good: “Couples Retreat” is okayish as entertainment, I guess, but like “Four Christmases” and (especially) “Fred Claus” it’s less a narrative than a series of noisy arguments strung along the thinnest of narrative structures.

But who cares? Audiences love the fast-talking schlub, and showed up for the movie in droves this weekend — to the tune of a $35.3 million opening gross. So, once again, Vince Vaughn is king of his very particular castle. The doors aren’t secure on their hinges, so it’s awfully drafty, and there’s a little kid running around peeing on stuff, but it’s still a castle.

I have a feeling Jon Favreau isn’t going to get the credit he deserves for the script, but he’s probably okay with that, given the props he pulls for the “Iron Man” movies. So that’s nice.