A slow weekend at the US box office wasn’t helped by the encroaching form of Hurricane Sandy, which meant that East Coast cinemagoers were more concerned with gathering supplies and shoring up for the storm instead of checking out Tom Hanks’ latest at the multiplex. But, buoyed by great word of mouth, Ben Affleck's Argo pulled off a big win, jumping to the top of the charts for the first time since release and earning $12.3 million along the way.

Sony’s Hotel Transylvania also performed well despite being on release for five weeks. It leapt back to second place from fourth and took in $9.5 million. The first of the week’s new releases, Cloud Atlas, only managed to crack the charts in third with a disappointing $9.4 million, and that’s despite a buzz-worthy cast and plenty of advertising. Paranormal Activity 4 fell to fourth with $8.6 million, while Taken 2 and new arrival Silent Hill: Revelation jockeyed for fifth / sixth with $8 million each.

Seventh was Kevin James comedy Here Comes The Boom, which made $5.5 million ahead of Sinister in eighth with $5.7 million. Alex Cross dropped once again, falling from fifth to ninth and $5.5 million. And crawling into 10th, despite appearing on 3,014 screens, was Paramount’s Halloween comedy Fun Size, which earned a lowly $4 million.