The new horror movie Thirty Days of Night led the weekend U.S. movie box office—and garnered four times as large an audience as the political thriller Rendition, in both films’ first week of release.

Rendition, starring Jake Gyllenhall, Reese Witherspoon, and Meryl Streep, finished ninth overall. It tells a story of U.S. government paranoia and injustice in response to concerns about terrorism, and has been seen as an indictment of ambiguities in the Bush administration’s position on the use of torture by American intelligence agencies.

Audiences preferred the new horror film and a couple of romantic comedies.

The top ten movies were, in order, Thirty Days of Night, Why Did I Get Married, The Game Plan, Michael Clayton, Gone Baby Gone (in its first weekend), The Comebacks (also in its first weekend), We Own the Night, Tim Burton’s The Nighmare Before Christmas in 3D, Rendition, and The Heartbreak Kid.

The low-budget and low-profile new animated film The Ten Commandments opened very poorly, bringing in only $474,760 in 830 theaters after being savaged by reviiewers for low quality of both animation and performances. It did manage to get a good review in the Chicago Tribune, for whatever that’s worth.