Horror swung a sharper blade than Zorro at the box office. With Halloween at hand, the bloody "Saw II" won the weekend with $30.5 million, almost double the $16.5 million opening of Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones' swashbuckling sequel "The Legend of Zorro," according to studio estimates Sunday.

The weekend's other big-name wide releases had so-so premieres. "Prime," starring Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep in a romance between a thirtysomething woman and a younger man, debuted at No. 3 with $6.4 million.

Nicolas Cage's "The Weather Man," in which he plays a materially successful TV forecaster whose personal life is a tempest of disorder, opened at No. 6 with $4.3 million.

Hollywood's box-office slump abated from the double-digit percentage declines of recent weekends, though receipts still were down. The top 12 movies took in $86.3 million, off 6.5 percent from the same weekend last year.

"Saw II," featuring Donnie Wahlberg as a cop drawn into a deadly game with the serial killer of the 2004 horror hit "Saw," easily outdid the original movie's $18.3 million opening over last Halloween weekend.