As was expected, the Sony CG-Animated feature "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" landed at number one at the national box office according to early estimates. The $90 million family comedy featuring the voice talents of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan and Mr. T (!!) among others played on a record 1,828 3D screens (3,117 totals) to help haul in a healthy $30 million estimated gross for the three-day period. Once again, it appears that the gimmick of 3-D technology, its higher ticket prices plus computer animation equals a trend that won't be going away anytime soon, for better or worse.On Friday, I had written that the Megan Fox thriller "Jennifer's Body" should have no problem slinking its way into the second spot with a gross in the area of $17 million. Well, that was before I knew that the film had been sitting on the shelf for while (it was shot a full year and a half ago), the last of Fox's Atomic Pictures distribution arm (which closed a while back). Had I know that, I would have lowered my guess a bit. It probably would still have been too generous though as the film stiffed (huh huh...stiff) right out of the gate. Megan's bod and the hip pen of "Juno" writer Diablo Cody couldn't help "Jennifer" seduce any more than roughly $7 million in sales for fifth place. The poster said "Hell yes!". Audiences opted to say "Hell, no!"
Of course, the film's failure is instantly blamed on Cody, forgetting the fact that Megan Fox probably would have trouble writing the title of the film down if asked and that this is the, what, fifth horror film we've encountered in three weeks' time? I'm not defending the film or Cody, but I find it really hard to believe that she was the one and only reason why this film tanked, honest to blog.
Second place instead went to Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!", which hauled in roughly $11 million in estimated sales. A little lower than I expected due to its 2500-screen count, "Informant!" was anything but a commercially-accessible film. With a subject matter more worthy of a low-budget independent film than a major Hollywood release (I'm sure having Matt Damon as the lead helped bump the project up to the A-list), this film was a little too sly and demanding on the attention span to click with mainstream audiences looking for laughs on a weekend night. But with a price tag of only $22 million, Warner should be able to make back its investment on the film, and possibly give Damon a push for some awards consideration.
The weekend's fourth release, the romantic comedy "Love Happens", opened with roughly $9 million in sales. Apparently, the lame ads ideally conveyed exactly what the film delivered: a love story where two gun-shy adults overcome their personal issues to end up together. Sounds like the perfect material for something you would watch when you're channel surfing when you're stuck at home during a snowstorm. The film is yet another dud in a long line of box office flops for Universal Pictures, who really hasn't had a huge hit domestically (they own the rights to 'Inglourious Basterds' overseas) since last April "Fast and Furious" made $155 million.
The other spots in the nation's top ten box office went to leftovers. Last week's big hit "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" collapsed by about 65% to $10.5 million est. and third place for $38 million to date. Sixth spot went to the other CG-animated fest "9" with $5 mil (down roughly 50%) and a $22 million est gross. "Inglourious Basterds" scalped $4 million more for seventh place and a $110 million gross. "The Final Destination" was eighth with $3.5 million ($64 mil to date), "All About Steve" was ninth with $3.7 million ($27 mil to date) and tenth was "Sorority Row" with $2.6 million and a $9 million gross.
Next week brings the trio of "Fame (2009)", the sci-fi/horror film "Pandorum" and the Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller "Surrogates".
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