Meatballs Still Steady @ No.1 Spot

Last weekend turning into the sleeper hit of the fall, Sony's blockbuster 3D toon Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs easily ruled the North American box office posting the smallest sophomore decline of any number one opener this year. Moviegoers were once again unimpressed with the new films that Hollywood studios tried to push on them with the Bruce Willis sci-fi pic Surrogates leading the pack with a sluggish debut in second place. The dance remake Fame bowed in third to mild numbers while the umpteenth horror film in recent weeks Pandorum failed to scare up much business.

Sliding by an incredibly low 17%, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs showed remarkable strength in first place grossing $25M in its second weekend in theaters, according to final studio figures. Sensational word-of-mouth and a lack of competing family films or comedies helped the Sony release boost its ten-day tally to a solid $60.5M. The only number one opener in 2009 to match this second weekend hold was Liam Neeson's Taken which also slipped by 17% in early February. The revenge thriller banked $53.6M in its first ten days before continuing its leggy run which extended to an astonishing $145M final.

Cloudy also delivered the best sophomore weekend gross ever for any September release. The road ahead still looks bright and sunny for the animated food flick. Disney will provide some competition this Friday with its double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D, but it's still unclear how big of a turnout should be expected. The next major film aimed at kids doesn't open until October 16 when Warner Bros. unleashes Where the Wild Things Are. A domestic cume of $150M or more could be possible for Meatballs making it Sony's top-grossing title of the year.

Bruce Willis saw mediocre results for his new $80M-budgeted action film Surrogates which debuted in second place with $14.9M. Averaging $5,050 from 2,951 locations, the PG-13 film about FBI agents in the future hunting down a new type of killer played to an older male audience. Studio data from Buena Vista showed that 58% of the crowd was male and 54% was over 25 - not surprising for a Willis actioner. The not-so-impressive domestic bow puts more pressure on the overseas starpower of Willis to kick in and generate cash in the weeks ahead.

The dance remake Fame didn't win over too many fans opening in third with $10M for a mild $3,234 average from 3,096 theaters. The PG-rated update on the 1980 classic hit played primarily to young women as studio research showed that a whopping 78% of the audience was female and 55% was under 25. Fame marked the first release from MGM all year. The troubled studio last hit the multiplexes in December with the Tom Cruise pic Valkyrie which performed better than expected with $83.1M. The marketplace had few choices for young women, but Fame failed to generate enough excitement to come close to recent teen-skewing dance hits like Step Up and Stomp the Yard which both opened to more than $20M. Luckily with its low $18M production cost, the pic should fare well after factoring in foreign sales and home video revenue.

Matt Damon's The Informant! held up well in its second weekend dipping only 37% to $6.6M and raised its cume to $20.7M in ten days. Look for a $40M final for the Warner Bros. release. Lionsgate followed with I Can Do Bad All By Myself which dropped 52% to $4.8M and $44.6M total.

Overture's Pandorum was the latest horror flick to be rejected by moviegoers. The R-rated space thriller bowed to just $4.4M and averaged a dismal $1,765 from 2,506 locations. Distributors chose to program six scary movies into a 30-day period and are now finding out the hard way that this was a bad idea. Over the previous two weekends, the films Sorority Row, Whiteout, and Jennifer's Body opened to less than $7M each with pitiful averages below $2,600.

The Jennifer Aniston pic Love Happens dropped a moderate 47% to $4.3M in its second date putting Universal's sum at $14.7M after ten days. A $25M final could result for the $18M production. Saturday Night Live host Megan Fox suffered a 47% fall for Jennifer's Body which grossed $3.7M in its second weekend for a ten-day tally of only $12.5M. Look for the $16M-budgeted fright flick to end with $18-20M.

The sci-fi toon 9 grossed $3M, down 47%, for a $27.2M cume. Rounding out the top ten was Inglourious Basterds which slipped only 30% to $2.7M giving The Weinstein Co. $114.4M to date.

#	Title	Sep 25 - 27			Theaters	Weeks		Cumulative	Distributor
1	Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs	$ 25,038,803			3,119	2		$ 60,474,555	Sony
2	Surrogates	14,902,692			2,951	1		14,902,692	Buena Vista
3	Fame	10,011,682			3,096	1		10,011,682	MGM
4	The Informant!	6,624,085			2,505	2		20,700,946	Warner Bros.
5	I Can Do Bad All By Myself	4,759,833			2,120	3		44,552,477	Lionsgate
6	Pandorum	4,424,126			2,506	1		4,424,126	Overture
7	Love Happens	4,307,980			1,898	2		14,708,710	Universal
8	Jennifer's Body	3,664,559			2,738	2		12,470,373	Fox
9	9	2,959,231			2,025	3		27,227,811	Focus
10	Inglourious Basterds	2,683,198			1,960	6		114,420,733	Weinstein Co.
11	All About Steve	2,285,666			1,965	4		29,939,811	Fox
12	The Final Destination	1,376,614			1,175	5		64,603,402	Warner Bros.
13	Julie & Julia	1,263,283			1,328	8		90,600,766	Sony
14	Sorority Row	1,083,874			1,523	3		10,719,202	Summit
15	District 9	1,082,176			925	7		113,522,260	Sony
16	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	845,390			895	8		147,415,055	Paramount
17	Bright Star	671,895			130	2		962,153	Apparition
18	The Time Traveler's Wife	566,137			810	7		61,748,749	Warner Bros.
19	Gamer	550,353			780	4		20,145,136	Lionsgate
20	The Hangover	423,193			355	17		274,452,813	Warner Bros.