This weekend saw (spot the puns anyone?) Liongate’s latest blockbuster horror sequel Saw III, open with an impressive $34.3m at the North American box office, marking one of the biggest opening weekends for an R-rated movie in over two years. Having seen the success of it’s predecessors and noted the fact that this incarnation has managed to surpass both of their opening weekends, it seems likely that this will go onto to become the highest grossing in the series (The original Saw pulled in $55.2m overall whilst Saw II raised the stakes by amassing a kitty of $87m in total).

Moving on down the charts, The Departed managed to gross another $9.84m bringing it’s total to $91.1m and The Prestige pulled in a respectable $9.63m bringing it’s own total to $28.8m.

Here’s the full list (Key = Rank/Film Name/Weekend Gross/Total Gross):

• 1. Saw III - $34.3m - $34.3m
• 2. The Departed - $9.84m - $91.1m
• 3. The Prestige - $9.63m - $28.8m
• 4. Flags of Our Fathers - $6.35m - $19.9m
• 5. Open Season - $6.1m - $77.4m
• 6. Flicka - $4.97m - $14.1m
• 7. Man of the Year - $4.7m - $28.9m
• 8. The Grudge 2 - $3.3m - $36m
• 9. Marie Antoinette - $2.85m - $9.76m
• 10. Running With Scissors - $2.55m - $2.88m

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB