'Wild Things' tops movie charts

>>> a look. "where the wild things are" is the new number one movie in the country, the popular children's book comes to life on the big screen . early projections for the weekend show " wild things " pulling in $33 million. law-abiding citizen and paranormal round out the top three. good to have you here, joe, to talk about this book. you liked it.

>> i did. i think it's terrific, i gave it four stars. i think it's captivating and rich and emotional, and it's fantastic to look at, and i think it really shows that kids movies don't have to be cinematic coloring books to be a success and $35 million shows that.

>> you don't mind admitting on national tv that you cried watching that.

>> i cried.

>> everybody cries.

>> the director spike jones said he made a movie about childhood, not necessarily a children's movie and that clip we showed just illustrated there's a lot of silent passages in the movie, like the beginning of "wall-e" in some ways, no dialogue, but it's beautiful and i think older kids will connect to it, younger kids, younger than 6 or 7 might be bothered.

>> afraid from it, the darkness?

>> it's a little dark but more emotionally complex. it doesn't have resolution in a lot of ways, a lot of the issues that the young boy , max and the wild things go through their issues left unresolved and there's also a melancholy feeling, a sad movie in some ways, not overly and the creatures are puppets, not cgis, big henson company puppets are tactile which means they're forbidding in some ways, not like "shrek" you can't ignore them as cartoons and that adds to it as well.

>> there's some voices we'll recogni recognize.

>> james gandolfini and the best kids movies "wizards of oz" the first " willy wonka ." the decision to show your kids that movie becomes a big thing how scary is it.

>> it does.

>> if they're older than 7 the connection is made.

>> the harry potter series .

>> that's right, another good example.

>> dark, the certain element of darkness.

>> "law-abiding citizen" came in second.

>> it's a much needed hit for jamie foxx , five years since his oscar and underperforming movies, weak performances. i found it loud and silly and a little punch-drunk at the end but a lot of people like that as a experience and a good hit for them.

>> this " paranormal activity " talk about the little movie that could, $11,000 to produce this thing and how much has it made? how scary is it, what is the appeal?

>> it's pretty scary. i think the appeal is the idea that it's a homegrown horror film in some ways, it's very creepy and it's minimalism. all of the footage is sort of file footage , like "the blair witch project " videotaped and at a late night screening you get a sense of the creeps with the movie. it's made 15 million this weekend, 800 screens and that is one-fourth of the screens as the stepfather and came out ahead of "the stepfather." the appeal is the word of mouth .

>> you have to give word of mouth to get it to your theater.

>> that's right.

>> unique internet we want to have it where i live.

>> this movie has three major moments you walk out creeped out, and in a big budget hollywood movie you're lucky if you get one. this movie thanks to the creepy moments you walk out with the shivers thanks to $11,000.

>> some alternatives in the theaters,