Horror remains king of the boxoffice. But instead of the jokey horror parodies that reigned last weekend, when Scary Movie 4 topped the list, this weekend an unapologetically spooky movie, Silent Hill, claimed the No. 1 position.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures' Silent took home the honors with an estimated $20.2 million. The Sentinel, 20th Century Fox's Washington-set thriller, opened in third place with an estimated $14.7 million, just behind Scary 4 at No. 2. But the weekend's third wide opener, Universal Pictures' American Dreamz, proved an inadvertent horror show, bowing to just $3.7 million for a dispiriting eighth-place finish.

In the absence of fresh large-scale rollouts of major studio titles, 20th Century Fox International's Ice Age: The Meltdown dominated the international boxoffice for the fourth consecutive weekend with an estimated $23 million from 5,486 screens in 27 territories. The animated sequel to 2002's Ice Age has grossed $317 million to date overseas, nearly double its comparable domestic cume. Its worldwide boxoffice tally now stands at $485 million. Meltdown opened in four territories, three of which were significant: Italy (an estimated $6.2 million at 644 screens), Japan ($1.2 million at 464 sites) and South Korea ($1.8 million at 234 screens). Notable holdover markets include the U.K., where it scored a whopping $3 million in its third weekend at 492 screens for a market cume of $42.7 million.

Silent Hill was released April 21st, 2006 and stars Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates, Tanya Allen, Alice Krige, Jodelle Ferland. The film is directed by Christophe Gans.