Filed under: Box-Office News

Box-Office Wrap-Up: Sep. 25 – Sep. 27, 2009

Meatballs does something Watchmen, Star Trek, and Harry Potter couldn't. Repeats!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs only fell an estimated 18.8 percent, the 26th smallest drop of all time (of films that opened in at least 3000 theaters). Alert commenters JM and Nick both had Meatballs winning, but even they didn't have it cracking $20m. However, commenter Steve probably was most apt with his "Good weekend to get caught up on videos" take. It was the third worst weekend of the year, and the miserable financial September continues. Let's break it down!
#1 movie predicted correctly: 0 Weeks In A Row
It still needs another $190m before it can start thinking about profit, so they've got to be thrilled the film showed strength this weekend. It it wins again I promise I'll actually see it.
Result: 24.6 million (My rank: #, $m off)
It didn't do as well as I thought it would, and it certainly didn't do as well as the four people who called it to win thought it would. I think the issue was the "we've seen it before" factor. It looked like a Matrix, Minority Report, Fifth Element, Total Recall mash-up. Only without the innovation factor.
Result: 15.0 million (My rank: #2, $2.7m off)
3. Fame
Is this more of a referendum on lack of star power… or marketing? It was clear they didn't know what to do with this film. It didn't have the singular focus of Step Up (dancing) or High School Musical (bubble gum teens). The market punished it for being unapproachable.
Result: 10.0 million (My rank: #1, $8.6m off)
A $22m budget has been reported here. Which means it was worth a shot for Warner Bros., just on the off chance it came through.
Result: 6.9 million (My rank: #5, $1.1m off)
It still needs another $20m to catch Madea's Family Reunion for second all time on the Tyler Perry list. I would bet against, and clearly it has no chance at Madea Goes to Jail's $91m first place showing.
Result: 4.7 million (My rank: #6, $.4m off)
The lowest per theater average of any of the newcomers. Overture is still playing small ball, with only Righteous Kill breaking $40m in the last two years of their releases.
Result: 4.4 million (My rank: #4, $1.9m off)
The bottom six films didn't make as much as Meatballs. Top heavy and frontloaded, the new box office norms.
Result: 4.3 million (My rank: #7, $0.5m off)
That's a pretty nice prediction by me. It's been a long time since I've given myself a heartfelt compliment, but don't worry, I won't start now.
Result: 3.5 million (My rank: #8, $0.1m off)
9. 9
It broke the top 100 animations of all time this weekend. Break out the bubbly!
Result: 2.8 million (My rank: #9, $0.3m off)
The other box office results you should know about? Capitalism: A Love Story made a weekend leading $60k per theater (in only four theaters). I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell could only muster $3k per theater, it will be interesting to see if it can build any momentum off that result.
Result: 2.7 million (My rank: Not Ranked)

How say you? Happy about Fame's demise? Pleased to see Cloudy hanging on? Missing legitimate films? Hit me up in the comments, and don't pull any punches.


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Post #1
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I'm glad Meatballs repeated on top, it was a funny movie. Not the best animated film of the year, that's definitely Up, but it was entertaining. Hard to believe in a year of X-Men, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Fast & Furious, and Night At The Museum, the only 6 films to repeat are: Paul Blart, Madea Goes To Jail, The Hangover, Transformers 2, Final Destination, and now Meatballs.

- Robert
( September 27th, 2009 | 11:46 am )
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Post #2
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Hmmm. I admit I'm starting to think about watching Meatballs. And I think $100M is a pretty safe bet for it now, even though it will fall hard next weekend with Toy Stories 3-D arriving.

Pleased to see IB and The Informant holding so well, can't wait to see the latter. As for the rest of the chart, don't really care, honestly. Really hope Zombieland does great next weekend, it looks awesome from the previews, and the buzz is very positive too. Will be interesting how much is TS double-feature going to make.

- Nick
( September 27th, 2009 | 12:08 pm )
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Post #3
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Meatballs wins again. That is good. Sorrugates and Fame bomb at the box office. Fame only coast $16M, but Sorrugates (o my god) cost $80M to make. Unfortunely, next weekend Meatballs will lost almost all 3-D theaters to Toy Story 3D. Zombieland looks to be another bomb at the box office. Meatballs could repeat again? Or Toy Story will win? Only next week we will know.

- Jonh-PT
( September 27th, 2009 | 12:26 pm )
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Post #4
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The Surrogates situation is bad, but don't worry. The head of Disney studios has already been shown the door (I don't think they say 'fired' at Disney.) There was a commenter a while back who thought Fall was a good time for the studios to rerelease old movies to avoid losing money. He'll be happy that Disney is somewhat taking his advice, rereleasing Toy Story, Toy Story2, and The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D.
Tyler Perry fans must be happy fans indeed as he continues to stick with his two movies per year schedule, the next to be released Easter weekend.

- mfan
( September 27th, 2009 | 1:16 pm )
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Post #5
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Coco Before Chanel pulled in 30k per and Brief Interviews With Hideous Men took in 20k, and Paranormal Activity sold out nearly every midnight show. Good weekend for the limited releases.

Oh, Pandorum cost 40 million to make and Whiteout has made 9 million off of 30. Great month for the wides…

- Chris C.
( September 27th, 2009 | 1:26 pm )
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Post #6
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Yeah, I was waaaay off on "Fame". I didn't think it would get absolutely trashed review wise, nor did I see how all over the place the ads were (random people dancing, singing, rapping does not make for an interesting preview).

Good for "Cloudy", it'll make profit, no worries. Can't wait for "Zombieland" next week, same with "The Invention of Lying" (and although I saw it already, "Whip It" is totally a good viewing choice next week as well). With the exception of "Zombieland" though (and that's a stretch even- you know my feelings on "horror comedies") I don't see the movies doing too well next weekend either.

- Vince
( September 27th, 2009 | 1:37 pm )
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Post #7
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The Invention of Lying will be the pleasant surprise, though it won't be #1. Whip It will be surprising as well. Zombieland could make more; after The Final Destination is withdrawing from theaters as well as Halloween II. The Toy Story double feature will be fun to predict. Had Shutter Island been released next week, it would have been #1.

- m1
( September 27th, 2009 | 2:17 pm )
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Post #8
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next week is gonna be a weird week…
i can't even think of dollar values
1. Toy Story Double Feature
2. Whip It!
3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
4. Zombieland
5. The Invention of Lying
6. Surrogates
7. Capitalism: A Love Story
8. The Informant!
9. Fame
10. I Can Do Bad All By Myself

- JAB
( September 27th, 2009 | 2:42 pm )
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Post #9
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@Jonh-PT: Meatballs will still have the IMAX 3D screens though.

I was expecting an average movie with Surrogates and walked out with one of the biggest surprises of the year, personally. Innovative enough, great action scenes, but more importantly – a thoroughly thought-provoking sci-fi premise and I was surprised by how many times I found myself with my jaw dropped. Shame it didn't perform highly. Still gotta see 9 and Meatballs.

It definitely WILL be a weird weekend. Zombieland technically is set to open to the most theatres (at 2,900+). I'm not sure if the power of just 3D theatres can bring Toy Story to #1, because a) it won't have the non-3D theatres to back it up, b) Meatballs will surely keep a portion of the 3D theatres, and c) Aside from a brief trailer, I think the marketing has been nearly non-existent. When was the last time a re-release took #1?

I think next weekend could be a spread out one, with many of the new releases succeeding in some way, but Meatballs and Zombieland (whose marketing has been great) slugging it out for #1, which isn’t something one would have thought would have happened the weekend Shutter Island was originally supposed to be released….

- Eli
( September 27th, 2009 | 3:03 pm )
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Post #10
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@JAB:

I'm not entirely sure about Toy Story. It doesn't have that many theaters and no 2D.
1. Toy Story Double Feature
2. Zombieland
3. Whip It
4. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
5. The Invention of Lying
6. Surrogates
7. Fame
8. Capitalism: A Love Story
9. The Informant!
10. I Can Do Bad All By Myself.

- Bram
( September 27th, 2009 | 3:07 pm )
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Post #11
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The box office will continue to be down, but thanks @Eli: for giving me a reason to go see Surrogates, which I was on the fence about. I'm definitely going.

- mfan
( September 27th, 2009 | 3:22 pm )
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Post #12
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I'm predicting a Cloudy threepeat… still haven't had one since Tropic Thunder. It will probably have a drop of around 30-35%, because even though the third weekend drop is generally notably smaller than the second weekend drop, it has actual competition next weekend, and the Toy Story re-releases will be stealing some of its 3D screens. However, the word of mouth is so good that I don't see it taking a steep fall. Also, it's important to note that a lot of parents may choose Cloudy over Toy Story & Toy Story 2, seeing as the child may want to see both movies while they're at the theater (roughly three hours), which is very time-consuming. In contrast, this makes Cloudy's hour-and-a-half running time look a lot more appealing. Also, it is important to note that Capitalism: A Love Story is expanding to 1,000 locations on Friday, and it could do some serious damage at the box office. Early predictions:

1. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs- $17 million
2. Zombieland- $16 million
3. Toy Story & Toy Story 2 3D- $12 million
4. Capitalism: A Love Story- $10 million
5. Whip It- $9 million

- Bustray
( September 27th, 2009 | 8:05 pm )
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