Meatball Still On A Roll

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs rolled over the week's 3 new wide releases easily to stay in the top spot...



Dave McNary of Variety:

Meatballs equaled the most moolah again as Sony’s second weekend of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” dominated the nation’s box office with $24.6 million at 3,119, easily topping the debuts of Disney’s “Surrogates,” MGM’s “Fame” and Overture’s “Pandorum.”

“Meatballs” showed strong holding power with a decline of only 19%, lifting its 10-day cume to $60 million. The 3D toon took in $5.6 million on Friday, then doubled that figure on Saturday to $11.2 million and $7.8 million on Sunday.

Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” generated impressive heat in its launch with $240,000 at four for the weekend, achieving the top per screen average this year with $60,000. “Capitalism” has cumed $306,586 in its first five days and will expand to about 1,000 next weekend.

“Surrogates,” starring Bruce Willis, finished a distant second with $15 million at 2,951 as the sci-fier came in under forecasts. With an $80 million budget, the modest launch represents a disappointment for the Mouse House.

“Fame” followed in third with $10 million at 3,096 as the reboot - a co-production between Lakeshore and MGM/United Artists - finished at the low end of expectations. The audience for “Fame” was 78% female and 55% under 25 as “Cloudy” appeared to cut into the potential audience.

Warner’s second frame of Matt Damon’s “The Informant” held respectably in fourth with a 34% decline to $6.9 million at 2,505 for a 10-day cume of $21 million.

Lionsgate’s third frame of “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” followed with $4.8 million at 2,241 for a 17-day total of $44.5 million. That edged Overture’s tepid launch of outer-space horror entry “Pandorum” with $4.4 million at 1,759 as horror titles continue to underpeform....

Adam Markovitz of EW:

Seconds, anyone? Eating up $24.6 million worth of tickets, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs defied box office gravity by falling a minuscule 19 percent to win the top spot yet again. The CG family film capitalized on good buzz...

I'm a bit surprised that Surrogates with Bruce Willis could not win based on his star power alone...Reviews for the sci-fi action pic are pretty bad though...