( CNN ) -- Halloween weekend appears to have scared off the major movie studios : none of them released a new film , perhaps figuring folks were more interested in parties and trick-or-treating . It seems they were right , as the holiday turned cineplexes into ghost towns . `` Nightcrawler , '' a dark thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal , was the only new movie to open in the top 10 , taking in $ 10.9 million . Gyllenhaal plays a creepy freelance cameraman determined to ride the local TV news trend of `` if it bleeds , it leads '' to success . Weekend estimates showed `` Nightcrawler , '' from Open Road Films , barely edging last weekend 's champ , the horror flick `` Ouija , '' Whichever film winds up on top , it 'll be the lowest-grossing No . 1 movie since `` Guardians of the Galaxy '' topped the chart with just $ 10.4 million in early September in its sixth weekend in release . If `` Nightcrawler '' squeezes out the win , it 'll be the lowest-grossing No . 1 debut in more than two years , when `` The Possession '' opened with just $ 9.3 million . Both of those low-grossing number ones occurred on the weekend after Labor Day , traditionally one of the poorest box office weekends of the year . This weekend 's other new wide release , `` Before I Go To Sleep , '' opened outside the top 10 , as expected . Nicole Kidman stars as a woman who wakes up every morning with her memory erased . That 's an eerie similarity to Kidman 's career of late , continuing a pattern of quickly-forgotten films : `` Trespass , '' `` The Paperboy '' `` Stoker , '' and `` The Railway Man . '' Even a special Halloween re-release of the original `` Saw , '' the 2004 movie that helped spark the current horror-as-torture-porn genre , could n't lure many fans . Jigsaw and his victims averaged a pathetic $ 315 per theater . Strange -- it 's as if people looking for scary stuff had something else to do this weekend .
`` Nightcrawler '' appears to edge 'Ouija ' for No . one by a razor-thin margin . Jake Gyllenhaal thriller would be the lowest-grossing No . 1 debut in the year . Jake Gyllenhaal continues her string of flops with ` Nightcrawler ` Before I Go To Sleep '' `` '' re-release failed to lure fans back into Jigsaw 's traps .