Box Office Results: ‘Meatballs’ rain on box office for second straight weekend

Studio Estimate for September 25-27:

1.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – $25 million
2.  Surrogates – $14.9 million
3.  Fame – $10 million
4.  The Informant! – $6.6 million
5.  Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself – $4.8 million

6.  Pandorum – $4.4 million

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs experienced only a 17% decline from last weekend’s total and grossed $25 million to take the top spot at the box office for a second straight week.  Meanwhile, the new releases weren’t as successful as they would’ve liked.  Surrogates only grossed $14.9 million, which was good enough as runner-up, while Fame took in $10 million for the third spot.

The Informant! grossed $6.6 million for fourth place and I Can Do Bad All By Myself grossed $4.8 million to finish off the Top 5.  The sci-fi/horror Pandorum landed in the sixth spot with a dismal $4.4 million.

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As for our predictions, it was a close race between Sheehan and I.  We both correctly predicted four of the Top 5 films, with three in the correct ranking.  So what it came down to were our gross estimates, where I edged him out by being $13 million off to his $20 million.  Meanwhile, Phil did not have very accurate predictions.  Better next time buddy!

Check back on Friday for our predictions with four new wide releases.  The Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying; the Drew Barrymore chick-sport/comedy Whip It; the horror/comedy Zombieland; and the two-week only, 3-D double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2.

Box Office Predictions (Sept. 25-27)

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Last weekend, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs rained on the box office with $30 million, which landed the top spot.  It’s going to be a tough task for any of the three new releases to take the top spot from the kiddie-animation.

First, there is Surrogates starring Bruce Willis in a sci-fi/thriller about villain who kills people through robots.  The friendly PG-13 rating and the big-name movie star could be its ticket to the top.  Debuting in about 2,700 theaters, let’s see how well it does.

One concern for the success of Surrogates lies in the release of Pandorum during the same weekend.  Pandorum stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster as astronauts who wake up with no memory on a deserted and dangerous spaceship.  It’s a sci-fi/horror with an R-rating.  I feel more people will be interested in Surrogates, but Pandorum could create direct competition.

Finally, the musical remake of Fame, a story of aspiring New York dancers.  Its demographic will be towards young teenage girls, since the teenage boys will be seeing Surrogates.  Or maybe some tweens will get this mixed up with another High School Musical?  Nah… debuting in about 3,000 theaters, expect Fame to make the Top 5.

Here are our predictions…

My Predictions:

1.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – $21 million
2.  Surrogates – $18 million
3.  Fame – $12 million
4.  Pandorum – $7 million
5.  The Informant! – $6 million

Phil’s Predictions:

1.  Surrogates – $30 million
2.  Fame – $23 million
3.  Pandorum – $18 million
4.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – $14 million
5.  The Informant! – $5 million

Sheehan’s Predictions:

1.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – $22 million
2.  Surrogates – $20 million
3.  Pandorum – $12 million
4.  The Informant! – $9 million
5.  Fame – $8 million