Since the news cycle is still pretty clogged with election results and stories (even Variety has an electoral map on their home page) and the rest of the world -- including Hollywood -- can't seem to get much of a word in edge-wise, I'm going to follow Odie's lead and report on a politics-movie tie-in. Over at The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog, Steven Zeitchik explored the possibility of whether or not Republican Presidents are bad for movies. It turns out they kind of are.

If there's two things America loves, it's high school and musicals. Okay, not everyone loves high school -- social outcasts, I'm looking at you -- but most young kids can't wait to get there, and most adults wish they could relive it. So it's no wonder that High School Musical 3: Senior Year remains at the top of the U.S. box office for the second week in a row, bringing in another $15 million for a total of $61.7 million. In other frightening -in-a-wholly-expected-way Halloween news, Beverly Hills Chihuahua made another $4.7 million and is still at #6, for a total of $84 million. Because if there's three additional things Americans love, it's dogs, Mexico and rich people.

Two sequels that couldn't be any more different if they tried battled it out at the box office this weekend, and it turns out the cheesy dancers beat out the crazed, torture-inflicting madman. That's right, High School Musical 3: Senior Year out-muscled Saw V -- and, if you listened closely, you could almost hear the sound of Disney execs crying that they had released the first two HSM movies on TV. Just look at all those buckets of money they could have made if they'd only released in theaters. (Not that the HSM franchise hasn't made Disney more money than most of us can fathom anyway.)

Mark Wahlberg's videogame adaptation Max Payne managed to unseat Beverly Hills Chihuahua after the talking-dog movie had been at the top of the weekend box office for two weeks in a row. But no other new release did better than a third helping of Chihuahua. I'm starting to wonder if there's something wrong with me for not thinking that movie could possibly be good. But I'm going to stick with what I said last week: The problem lies with America.

If you 've ever wondered why so much of the world hates America, we now have an answer: Beverly Hills Chihuahua held tight to its number 1 position at the box office for a second weekend in a row, despite four new movies opening in wide release. It brought in $17.5 million for a $52.5 million total after two weeks. I wanted to take solace in the fact that it opened on a lot of screens (3,218), so it 's per-screen take might not be as great as some other movies. But only one movie in the top 10 has a higher per-screen take than Chihuahua 's $5,442 per screen.

Who would have thought Mamma Mia! would have this kind of steam overseas? Well, it certainly does, as it stayed on top at the foreign box office for the weekend, taking in another $14.1 million, increasing its total haul to $377.2 million. Add that to its domestic take of $142.7 million, and it's brought in more than $500 million worldwide -- no small feat, especially when you consider its genre: musical comedy. Not exactly the type of film that usually fares quite this well. [At least, not in America. Three of the top five all-time movies at the Indian box office are musicals. - Zach]

I would like to think someone made a mistake in tallying the box office results this week, because the news that Beverly Hills Chihuahua was the top movie of the week depleted any little faith I might have still had in this country's taste. I know I can just use the excuse of, "It's a kids' movie. Kids will go see almost anything." But then I also have to realize that someone usually takes them to, or at least pays for, their movies. So that means adults contributed to and approved of this box office win. At any rate, it brought in $29 million for its first weekend. Granted, it was on a bazillion (3,215, to be exact) screens, but still. This is just not okay.

Shia LaBeouf and Eagle Eye helped pull the movies out of the blues they've been in for a number of weeks (remember three weeks ago, when the No. 1 movie made $7.8 million?) with a $29.2 million opening weekend. It was not only good enough for the top spot at the box office, but also good enough to make it the No. 4 September opening of all time. That's mildly impressive -- though only mildly, considering one of the movies ahead of it is The Exorcism of Emily Rose, not exactly a masterpiece.

Samuel L. Jackson's creeptastic performance was enough to put Lakeview Terrace on top at the box office for its opening weekend. It took in $15.6 million on 2,464 screens, and it was the only one of four new movies in wide release that managed to beat Burn After Reading, which held tight in the second spot with another $11.295 million in its second week.

It looks like the Coen Brothers might have another success on their hands: Their latest film, Burn After Reading, not only landed at the top box office spot with a $19.4 million opening weekend, but it also helped the whole nation recover from last weekend's embarrassingly low take. Brad Pitt and George Clooney's presence in Burn After Reading might have helped the Coens to such a lofty opening weekend.