Lakeview Terrace debuts in top spot

But the tale of a cop terrorizing his new neighborhood only did so-so compared to summer hits of previous months.

"Obviously, as compared to like the summer season, the bar has definitely been lowered in terms of what movies are making," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

"This definitely is a slowdown period, as is typical for this post-summer malaise we always seem to run up against."

Burn After Reading took the number two spot, and the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Girl, starring Kate Hudson, Dane Cook and Jason Biggs, came in at number three with an $8.3 million weekend debut.

1. Lakeview Terrace, $15.6 million
2. Burn After Reading, $11.3 million
3. My Best Friend's Girl, $8.3 million
4. Igor, $8 million
5. Righteous Kill, $7.7 million
6. Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys, $7.5 million
7. The Women, $5.3 million
8. Ghost Town, $5.2 million
9. The Dark Knight, $3 million
10 The House Bunny, $2.8 million

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