| Film | Weekend | Per Screen | Total | |
| 1 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | $30,100,000 | $9,651 | $30,100,000 |
| 2 | The Informant! | $10,545,000 | $4,210 | $10,545,000 |
| 3 | Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself | $10,060,000 (-57.1%) | $4,461 | $37,932,000 |
| 4 | Love Happens | $8,456,000 | $4,455 | $8,456,000 |
| 5 | Jennifer’s Body | $6,800,000 | $2,517 | $6,800,000 |
| 6 | 9 | $5,458,000 (-49.2%) | $2,650 | $22,794,000 |
| 7 | Inglourious Basterds | $3,603,000 (-41.3%) | $1,430 | $109,901,000 |
| 8 | All About Steve | $3,400,000 (-39.7%) | $1,575 | $26,678,000 |
| 9 | Sorority Row | $2,489,000 (-50.8%) | $961 | $8,870,000 |
| 10 | The Final Destination | $2,375,000 (-57.0%) | $1,316 | $62,392,000 |
This just in: It takes all kind of critters to make uncle Frank’s fritters.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was going to open, but it performed a bit better than (my) expectations. This is something of a win, but, and I hate to bring this up, but the listed production budget is around $100 Million. So a $30 weekend means that it could get to around or over the nine digit mark, but with DVD sales being what they are what looks like a solid win becomes a barely break-even. International numbers might favor the film, but I don’t know how popular the book is outside of the states. I don’t think it’s going to do Ice Age numbers, that’s for sure. Still, they got the weekend.
The Informant! is a strange movie, and it’s getting decidedly mixed responses from audiences, but a ten million opening means that this smallish film will likely not be a strike against anyone. There’s three wide releases next weekend, but The Informant! can weather those, and will likely top out around the $30-$40 range. Though Warner Brothers might throw some Oscar dollar at the title, likely the film will have to make due with making money when it hits video and TV. Considering it’s Soderberg, this is a much better fate than The Good German or The Girlfriend Experience, or… The thing is, these movies wouldn’t come out in September if they weren’t expected to be like this.
Tyler Perry has a ceiling, but he also knows how to make his films on time, on budget, and insanely profitable. Do not fuck with him. Dude probably already has over $100 million in the bank. Unless his love of ceramics has led his finances astray. But ceramics have waylaid a number of great entertainers. Doris Day, Gene Krupa, Kurtis Blow… all have fallen victim to extensive ceramic collections. I hope he’s steered clear.
Love Happens suggests what was apparent with Jennifer Aniston for a while now. People tolerate her movies. This was a dump, and it was likely cheap, but when it runs nearly 24/7 on cable in tree years, people will wonder if it’s this film, Picture Perfect or The Object of My Affections. Well, maybe not the latter, cause that’s the one where her best is Paul Rudd and gay, right?
Jennifer’s Body tanked. Expect Diablo Cody to say something empowering about it on Twitter. Or not. The film likely needed some sort of jump start to be appealing as it’s not a remake of a well known horror movie, and didn’t look stupid and open in January. As such part of its appeal was to the critical community, which had no problem ripping it down. And people don’t go to films to watch Megan Fox act. The funny thing is, she sounds Canadian to me. Maybe she should play a young Sarah Palin.
Summer’s over, and so the only real holdover from the summer months is Basterds. But that too shall pass. Then again, if you’ve got films like last weekend (Whiteout, Sorority Row), then maybe you can stick around for a while. It’s the slow season.
Oxycotton, by the way, is really good at clearing up zits.