The Weekend Gross - Page 2

Marking the best opening weekend of Wood Harrelson’s career ZOMBIELAND killed last weekend with $25 million. Shot partially in my hometown of Newnan, Georgia, this flick made EI’s Jeff Marker laugh out loud. Marker said the film had “some of the wittiest jokes to appear in a horror movie since SHAUN OF THE DEAD.” With other reviews being extremely favorable, look for ZOMBIELAND to live long at metroplexes in coming weeks.

Grabbing the R-rated crowd with their zombie laugher, Sony also captured a sizeable chunk of the family demographic with CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS. The food filled kiddie pic got closer to the $100 million mark by placing second in its third week in release. MEATBALL’s take was enough to best Disney’s 3D double feature of TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2. Still, having already made a mountain of cash from the first two stories, this special limited outing in 3 dimensions, will only whet audience appetites for next year’s third installment in the storied franchise.

Surprising was the failure of the Drew Barrymore directed roller derby film, WHIP IT, which came in with just shy of $5 million landing the new release in 6th place. Starring JUNO’s Ellen Page, the failure of WHIP IT commercially on the heels of the dismal performance of JENNIFER’S BODY, should have studios scratching their heads. While WHIP IT was a far superior film to the clever early but derivative late BODY, both films were clearly aimed at a young female demographic. And given the competition, I seriously doubt that distributor Fox was expecting an enormous take. But less than $5 million? Look for WHIP IT to cower quickly in the face of the Vince Vaughn comedy COUPLES RETREAT opening this week against the likely continued undead domination of ZOMBIELAND.

My pick as last week’s pleasant surprise PANDORUM dropped completely out of the top ten in its second week of release, and the Bruce Willis sci-fi borer SURROGATES rang up at number 5 falling significantly in its week two.

Looks like I’ve got to take in the little-horror-movie-that-could PARANORMAL ACTIVITY which continued selling out midnight screenings last weekend. The midnight gimmick has paid off. ACTIVITY has scared up more than half a million from a small number of these unique late night/early morning screenings. Everyone will be permitted to see PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, even in the sunshine, starting this Friday, so, we’ll see if the scares continue.

Sony’s “Meatballs” worked up quite an appetite at the weekend box office taking the top spot and another $24.6 million last weekend. The kiddie film with the ungainly name, had audiences satiated and easily surpassed all new releases in it second week out.

Bruce Willis wasn’t able to capture number one despite a late advertising blitz with his critically skewered robot science fiction thriller “Surrogates” that came in second with just $15 million. EI’s Scott Mantz praised the impressive special effects (made on a relatively modest $80 million budget) but found the film ultimately boring. Given the lackluster performance in its opening sesh, expect “Surrogates” to make its way to dvd fairly soon.

The youthful and glitzy “Fame” remake slipped in at number 3 with around $10 million. Generating little buzz critically or otherwise, this update of the much loved 1980 original didn’t even impress the film critic Pete Hammond, whose review was a rare opportunity to pan something. As more remakes emerge including the long gestating “Footloose” update, studios have to be weary of disturbing many more semi-classic films in search of a quick buck. Audiences just aren’t that gullible, are they?

The Steven Soderbergh directed, Matt Damon starrer “The Informant” continued to do well bringing in another $7 million. And Atlanta’s own Tyler Perry solidified his second hit of 2009 as “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” added nearly another $5 million moving its cume to almost $45 million.

Overture’s “Pandorum” which only screened for this critic on Thursday night before opening day, came in a distant 6^th place with not even $4 and a half million. The horror/science fiction film which I actually enjoyed, shouldn’t end up being a huge loss for Overture given the reasonable $40 million budget. “Pandorum” will catch on well on dvd and internationally, I’m sure.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” rounded out the top 10 continuing to perform well as the director’s highest grossing film to date.

Watch out for the little horror film “Paranormal Activity” which scored sold-out midnight screenings this week in limited release. This film was made for some kind of ridiculously small budget and screened at Slamdance back in 2008. Distributor Paramount might expand midnight screenings of the film in hopes of generating some kind of “Blair Witch” type buzz. While I’ve not seen the movie, EI’s Adam Barnick, who has seen it, is a big fan. Look for “Paranomal Activity” to scare in more markets in October.