'Puss' purrs at top of weekend B.O.

'Puss in Boots'Paramount-DreamWorks Animation 3D holdover "Puss in Boots" sunk its claws into the domestic B.O.'s top spot, with a remarkable soph-sesh drop of just 3% that yielded an estimated $33 million through Sunday, while "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," also in its second weekend, tallied a winning $40.8 million overseas."Puss" has grossed Stateside $75.5 million to date; "Tintin" reached $125.3 million internationally.The weekend's top domestic entry, Universal's "Tower Heist," came in at the low-end of expectations with an estimated $25.1 million, while Warner Bros.' "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" underperformed, grossing an estimated $13.1 million.By mid-day on Friday, most B.O. pundits expected a much closer race for the weekend crown between "Puss" and "Tower Heist" -- it was thought "Puss" would drop around 30%, proving the unpredictability of family auds, added to a fickle B.O. market of late.According to Par, "Puss'" 3% drop in its second frame is a record. (By comparison, "The Blind Side" saw an 18% increase in its second outing, but that was during Thanksgiving weekend. The last time a movie had a comparable non-holiday drop in its second weekend was "Twister," with a 10% dip back in May 1996.)"Puss," which collected a total $15 million overseas, also managed to hold well in markets like Russia, where the toon fell just 10% with $13.6 million, easily beating "Tintin," which bowed there with $5.9 million.Even though "Puss" certainly helped buoy Stateside conditions, the overall weekend B.O. was still down considerably from last year, a high-water November kickoff, by approximately 23%."We were expecting to be closer," said Warner distribution exec Jeff Goldstein, referring to the total box office vs. 2010.The benchmark hold for "Puss" proved Wall Street wrong, when last weekend's $34 million opening was considered a troubling start and caused DWA's stock to drop. But as Variety pointed out (Daily Variety, Oct 31), DWA toons have a strong tradition of legging out better-than-expected, with the studio's marketing chief Anne Globe saying, "I think 'Puss' is poised to have a higher multiple than what is normal." Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com