The horror genre returned tothe top of the charts over the weekend as Sony/Revolution's remake The Fog opened narrowly ahead of last weekend's championWallace & Gromit on an estimated $12.2m.

Paramount's romantic comedy Elizabethtown opened in third place on a middling $11m, while NewLine's action biopic Domino disappointed in sixth place on $4.7m.

None of the three debutsinspired the critics and the lack of sparkling new product painted a similarlylacklustre picture at the box office, as the top 12 titles combined for $72.2mto trail the same weekend last year by 18%.

Tom Welling, Maggie Graceand Selma Blair star in The Fog,based on John Carpenter's 1980 original. The picture averaged $4,104 from 2,972screens.

Directed by RupertWainwright, the film takes place in a coastal town whose inhabitants areplagued by a vengeful fog caused by a massive shipwreck 100 years earlier.

Elizabethtown, the latest offering from Cameron Crowe, starsOrlando Bloom as a disgraced shoe designer who falls for Kirsten Dunst's flightattendant on his way to his father's funeral. The picture averaged $4,370 from2,517 screens.

Keira Knightley shows offher wild side in Domino, TonyScott's movie about the late model-turned-bounty hunter Domino Harvey. Theaction picture averaged a poor $2,103 from 2,223 screens.

DreamWorks Animation's Wallace& Gromit added $11.7m for $33.3min its second weekend, while Buena Vista's thriller Flightplan fell two places to fourth for $70.8m after four.Fox's sibling comedy drama In Her Shoes ranks fifth on $20.1m after two weekends.

New Line's A History OfViolence climbed one place to eighthin its fourth weekend on $22.4m, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride ranks ninth and has grossed $47.7m through WarnerBros after five, and Sony's The Gospel ranks 10th on $12.2m after two.

Next weekend's wide releasesare Buena Vista's Shopgirl starringClaire Danes and Steve Martin; DreamWorks' horse-racing drama Dreamer starring Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning; Fox'sthriller Stay starring EwanMcGregor and Naomi Watts; Universal's action horror Doom starring Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) and KarlUrban; and Warner Bros' drama North Country, which stars Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand.

Estimated Top Ten US Oct14-16 2005

Film(Distributor)/International distribution/Estimated weekend gross/Estimatedtotal to date

1 (-) The Fog (Sony/Revolution) SPRI $12.2m -

2 (1) Wallace &Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit(DreamWorks Animation) UIP $11.7m $33.3m

3 (-) Elizabethtown (Paramount) UIP $11m -

4 (2) Flightplan (Buena Vista) BVI $6.5m $70.8m

5 (3) In Her Shoes (Fox) Fox Int'l $6.1m $20.1m

6 (-) Domino (New Line) Summit Entertainment $4.7m -

7 (4) Two For The Money (Universal/Morgan Creek) UIP/Morgan CreekInternational $4.6m $16.5m

8 (9) A History OfViolence (New Line) NLI $3.6m $22.4m

9 (6) Tim Burton's CorpseBride (Warner Bros) WBPI $3.5m$47.7m

10 (5) The Gospel (Screen Gems) SPRI $3.2m $12.2m