I just went to two different concerts and looked up others online. Tours are increasingly struggling and having to discount their tickets to many of their arenas closer to full. Are your top ten estimates based on last years overall box office? If so, maybe you should subtract 10 or 20%. I realize concert tickets cost more than movies, but it seems like entertainment is struggling.

I just went to two different concerts and looked up others online. Tours are increasingly struggling and having to discount their tickets to many arenas to get them closer to full. Are your top ten estimates based on last years overall box office? If so, maybe you should subtract 10 or 20%. I realize concert tickets cost more than movies, but it seems like entertainment is struggling.

Cloudy will definitely take the number one spot, with The Informant! at number two.
I'm actually looking for Jennifer's Body to possibly bomb. The movie theater I work at isn't even getting it, and we're the only theater chain in our county. Apparently, according to my manager, 20th Century Fox dialed back a bit on how many theaters they were releasing it in. Megan Fox will still draw some people out, of course, but I don't think the marketing has really been that impressive. I don't even remember seeing any commercials on TV. I could be wrong, but I see Megan Fox's first film as a lead turning into a flop.

My top 5:
Cloudy – 28.5 million
Informant! – 15.9 million
Tyler Perry – 9.6 million
Jennifer's Body – 8.8 million
Love Happens – 7.1 million

This web site is giving me mucho problemos tonight. Hoping I'm an isolated case.

@Pumice Miner: I hear/hear what you're saying. But last week was a fluke brought on by the campus crowd actually going to classes and poor choices.

I think Jennifer's Body will do pretty decent, like you're predicting, Laremy. I've heard that it delivers in the campy, funny entertainment bracket. And Cloudy will draw the families, who, like you said, have had a long drought. I know The Informant will do poorly, just not how poorly. And will Love Happens still draw couples with Jennifer's Body out there? Hmmm.

I absolutely love your comments on All About Steve. Maybe there's a surplus of guys named Steve who want to see "their" movie?

@Patricia: As for the problems, you are not an isolated case and it is something I am attempting to figure out… Apologies all around. :(

Here's my half-assed logic this week: Meatballs opens in 3,119 theatres. The highest opening weekend gross for a theatre count that low for a 3D animated film (considering the big ones are up at 3,500-4000+) in the past five years would go to Beowulf at $27.5m. But that wasn't the kids demo. The kids demo will up it, not to mention as already stated, the kids demo has been HORRIBLY neglected lately.

Add that to other factors like they've been marketing this thing for quite a while, the early excellent reviews, and the 3D & IMAX surcharges, I think it could go as high as $32m, which is slightly higher than the average 3D animated Disney-without-Pixar release like Bolt/Meet the Robinsons.

1.) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – $32m
2.) Jennifer's Body – $18.2m (frontloaded Megan Fox factor here?)
3.) The Informant – $12.5m (Syriana type numbers? Both had Damon, will have similar audiences, similar roles between Clooney/Damon, some Oscar Buzz, etc.)
4.) I Can Do Bad All By Myself – $10.1m (standard Perry drop)
5.) Love Happens – $8m (Aniston’s presence SHOULD bring that PTA up)
6.) 9 – $6m (WOM has been below-average and it was the only thing that resembled a kid’s movie last week, therefore somewhat screwed this week)
7.) Inglourious Basterds – $3.7m
8.) All About Steve – $3.3m
9.) Whiteout – $2.7m
10.) Sorority Row – $2.1m

1.) Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs – $ 21.5 mil
2.) The Informant – $ 17.5 mil
3.) Jennifers Body – $16 mil
4.) Love Happens – $ 13.5 mil
5.) I can do bad all by myself – $ 11.5 mil
6.) 9 – $ 7.5 mil
7.) Inglorious Basterds – $ 7 mil
8.) Sorority Row – $ 3.2 mil
9.) All About Steve – $ 2.8 mil
10.) Whiteout – $ 2.6 mil

oops… went wrong on Basterds… i meant 4 mil

This weekend will be a lot better than the last one. Cloudy will win big, Jennifers Body will have good results because Megan Fox and The Informant have Matt Damon.

My top 5:

Cloudy with a chances of Meatball – 26.2M
The Informant! – 14.8M
Jennifers Body – 14.5M
I Can Bad All By Myself – 9.4M
Love Happens – 7.1M

Kids have been deprived for nearly two months now. Parents will rush out with their children to go see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and the good marketing and reviews can only help it. I'm putting it's average smack dab in the middle of G-Force and Ice Age 3.
Jeniffer's Body will draw in most of the Transformers fans and horror fans so they can all see Megan Fox devouring boys and kissing Amanda Seyfried. It has had pretty good reviews for a horror movie, and it could have a very high friday before dropping off on Saturday and Sunday.
The Informant! ought to have a decent opening thanks to good marketing, while Love Happens could very well bomb (that would be Aniston's second of the year). The other movies should hold over fairly well because they dropped so hard last week. Predictions:
1. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs- $29.0 million
2. Jennifer's Body- $18.9 million
3. The Informant!- $17.0 million
4. Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself- $9.9 million
5. Love Happens- $5.1 million
6. 9- $4.9 million
7. Inglourious Basterds- $4.1 million
8. All About Steve- $3.2 million
9. The Final Destination- $2.4 million
10. Whiteout- $2.2 million

1. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs – $30M I'm surprised at how underestimated this film is. I've read several places where they add in all the factors of 3-D movie, lack of family entertainment, and clever marketing campaign, and then lowball it at $21 – $25M. All those factors have given openings closer to the $30M – $40M range. I'm lowballing it myself at only $30M, but it could certainly do much more and it wouldn't surprise me.

2. Jennifer's Body – $13.2M It's more a personal bias I think that I can't see this film taking off. I'm not a Megan Fox fan in the slightest, and every time she opens her mouth in an interview, I like her even less. That being said, I don't think I'm in the minority when I say she has been overexposed. This could hurt the film's chances quite a bit, and I don't see this one being a breakout hit.

3. The Informant! – $13M This one could take second. Saw it last night, and it is a genuinely entertaining little film. I think it's got a lot of Burn After Reading style marketing which should help it. Plus, an exclamation point at the end of the title, that alone should make people want to rush out and see it.

4. Tyler Perry's I Can… – $10.1M I like you better when you make short titles Tyler Perry.

5. 9 – $6M Anyone else disappointed that this film will never have a weekend where it will make $9M.

6. Love Happens – $5.2M This movie looks awful. And it's serious. Unless Jennifer Aniston falls while wearing high heels or something, then this movie has zero chance.

7. Inglourious Basterds – $3.5M
8. All About Steve – $2.9M
9. The Final Destination – $2.5M
10. Whiteout – $2.3M

Saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" last Friday and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. One of the best films of year, for me. Brilliant, beautiful stuff. It'll dominate this weekend with a #1 spot for sure, once word-of-mouth reaches it. I saw "Love Happens" on Wednesday, and you know, it wasn't half-bad; it wasn't Shakespeare but it was very, very sweet, romantic, and believable. I have a feeling it could surprise. I saw "Jennifer's Body" on Tuesday and really, really didn't like it. I have a feeling it'll disappoint. And "The Informant!," well, I was not a fan of it last Thursday, but it could make money, a la the "Ocean's" movies; I just found it too jokey and flighty to work.

I'd say Cloudy is going to do great this weekend, seeing as its being show in 3-D and it's said to be hilarious.

Cloudy – $32.1 mil
Jennifer's Body – $15.2 mil
Informant – $14.1 mil
I Can Do Bad – $12.2 mil
Love Happens – $12.1 mil

I'd like to see TP do much better; I'm a big fan because I think his movies are more down to earth.

@Joel: Sign me up for all of those advance screenings, will ya?

I think "Cloudy" will do well, low 30s (and at the very least, high 20s) because, again, the kids have been completely ignored for the past few weeks. We have a cute looking kids comedy, getting good reviews & it's in 3D= success.

I said it before, I'll say it again, I just don't see "Jennifer's Body" doing well. It's being played up as a horror comedy, one of those tongue-in-cheek movies that the audience will just see as stupid, much like "Snakes on a Plane" or "Eight Legged Freaks" (dude, remember THAT movie? David Arquette as an action hero? And Scarlett Johannson was in that one too!). If it has an opening higher than $10-12 million, I'll be surprised. But it'll crash after that.

@Joel:

I agree with "Love Happens". It looks better than the dreck that we've been getting lately- kind of a down to earth romantic drama with two likable leads (c'mon? Who doesn't love Two-Face?!). Plus, besides "I Can Do Bad", the majority of the female audience hasn't gotten a good romantic drama (depending on your definition of "good") since "Time Traveler's Wife" a month ago. It could do more than $10 million opening and hold up for a few weeks.

Besides, when was the last time Aniston was in an out-and-out bomb??

Do you think 'District 9' will have one more shot at the top 10 before slowly discontinuing? If it does it might surprisingly rebound at #8 or #7. Or maybe #9 or #10.

@m1: Here's Friday's domestic U.S. result along with boxoffice to date from Boxofficemojo.com:

DISTRICT 9
TriStar

1,558 $570,000

+73.8% / $366
$110,342,000 / 36

which ranked it at #13 Friday.