“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” wins box office, makes overall weekend sunny for studios and theater owners

The very good family 3D movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” soared above the box office this weekend, winning with nearly 3x the revenue of 2nd place’s “The Informant!”, but the Matt Damon movie’s box office gross was a good showing, considering it nearly returned half of its $22 million budget.

“I Can Do Bad All By Myself” lost nearly 60% of its audience and slipped to 3rd place.   Other newbies “Love Happens” and “Jennifer’s Body” at least made the top 5… perhaps a surprise to some: “Love Happens” had the 3rd highest per screen average of the weekend, so it was pretty strong, but played in fewer theaters (only “The Final Destination” played in fewer theaters of the top 10).

Overall, the weekend was up about 15% from last weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – $30.10 million (1st week)

2. “The Informant!” – $10.55 million (1st week)

3. “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – $10.06 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of audience from last week)

4. “Love Happens” – $8.46 million (1st week)

5. “Jennifer’s Body” – $6.80 million (1st week)

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Fall season opens with two bangs and two blips at box office

“Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” continues the success of all movies with the Director/Actor’s name in the title, earning at least $10 million on opening weekend.   The highly promoted animated action movie “9″ gained $15 million… not a ton considering that includes its Wednesday opening and Thursday box office returns.

Last weekend’s top 3 (”The Final Destination”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “All About Steve”) changed spots but out grossed newcomers “Soroity Row” and “Whiteout”.   Overall, the first weekend of fall was down just 4% from the last weekend of the summer season.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – $24.03 million (1st week)

2. “9″ – $10.86 million (1st week)

3. “Inglourious Basterds” – $6.55 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 44% of audience from last week)

4. “All About Steve” - $5.80 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 48% from last week)

5. “The Final Destination” – $5.50 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 56% from last week)

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2009 Summer box office breaks records, ends with horror on top

“The Final Destination” held on to number one, “Inglourious Basterds” held on to second place while Sandra Bullock’s new movie “All About Steve” did the best of the three new movies.

Normally last weekend would have been the final weekend of summer, but due to late Labor Day, the summer is now over, but summer 2009 had already broken records before Labor Day weekend.  Yesterday, Variety reported “Summer revenues topped out at an estimated $4.31 billion through Monday, up 4% over summer 2007, the previous recordholder at $4.16 billion. Admissions were essentially even with summer 2008.”

Summer 2009’s top movie revenues:
1. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”  - $400.65 million
2. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $297.59 million
3. “Up” – $290.92 million
4. “The Hangover” - $272.17 million
5. “Star Trek” - $257.18 million

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Final Destination” – $12.32 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 55% of audience from last week)

2. “Inglourious Basterds” – $11.67 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 40% of audience from last week)

3. “All About Steve” - $11.23 million (1st week)

4. “Gamer” – $9.12 million (1st week)

5. “District 9″ - $7.10 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 31% from last week)

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 Horror storms the box office

“The Final Destination” beat out Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II”, but last week’s number one “Inglourious Basterds” split the two finishing in second place.   Three movies held their ground the best losing less than the average: “Julie & Julia” (lost 16% of audience from last week)  “(500) Days of Summer” (lost just 9% from last week), and “The Hangover” (lost just 2%).
Overall, the final weekend of summer movie season was up, turning around a two week slide, but it was only a 3% improvement… still clocking in as one of the lowest earning weeks of summer.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Final Destination” – $28.33 million (1st week)

2. “Inglourious Basterds” – $20.04 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 47% of audience from last week)

3. “Halloween II” - $17.40 million (1st week)

4. “District 9″ - $10.70 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 41% from last week)

5. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $8.00 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 35% from last week)

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“Inglourious Basterds” beat back “District 9″ at weekend box office, other three new movies barely show up at box office

“Inglourious Basterds” was strong, racking up more than $37 million, about the same amount as last week’s number one “District 9″ in its debut weekend.   The summer movie season is quickly coming to an end as… again… only 4 movies made more than $10 million and … again… the other new movies struggled to make the top ten.  New movie “Shorts” barely beat another family friendly movie “G-Force” (in its 5th week of release).

Overall, the box office was down again… nearly 10%… and it ranks as the lowest total of this summer movie season (one weekend remaining).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Inglourious Basterds” – $37.60 million (1st week)

2. “District 9″ - $18.90 million
(2nd week, was #1 lst week, lost 49% from last week)

3. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $12.50 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 44% from last week)

4. “The Time Traveler’s Wife” – $10.03 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 46% from last week)

5. “Julie & Julia” – $9.00 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 25% from last week)

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“District 9″ pushes “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” out of the top spot at the box office, four other new movies try to compete

“District 9″ was number one, but only 4 movies made more than $10 million and one new movie didn’t even make the top ten.  “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” lost nearly 60% of its audience, but the other 4 new movies of the weekend couldn’t beat it.   “The Time Traveler’s Wife” had a decent 3rd place debut, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” was 6th, “Ponyo” was 9th, and “Bandslam” was a distant 13th, barely ahead of the “The Hangover” in its 11th week.

The diluted weekend led to the 2nd lowest total at the box office this summer with the top 12 movies pulling in $125.37 million (down 5% from last weekend).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “District 9″ - $37.00 million (1st week)

2. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $22.50 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 59% from last week)

3. “The Time Traveler’s Wife” – $19.21 million (1st week)

4. “Julie & Julia” – $12.40 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 38% from last week)

5. ”G-Force” – $6.91 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 30% from last week)

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“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” wins the weekend, but its only half the battle … will it be able to sustain success?

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” dominates the weekend, but has about $120 million to go to match its $175 million budget… “Julie & Julia” cooks up a strong opening weekend in 2nd pace… the weekend’s other new movie “A Perfect Getaway” opened in a disappointing 7th place.   Last week’s #1: “Funny People” fell to 5th place, losing 65% of its audience.

Overall the weekend box office did recover from last weekend’s low, but still ranks as the summer’s 4th lowest weekend… with the top 12 movies pulling in $133.47 million.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $56.20 million (1st week)

2. “Julie & Julia” – $20.10 million (1st week)

3. “G-Force” – $9.80 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 44% from last week)

4. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $8.88 million ($273.8 million total)
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 50% from last week) 

5. “Funny People” – $7.87 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 65% from last week)

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“Funny People” with a more serious movie tone beat ”G-Force” for tops at weekend box office

Not a huge surprise that Adam Sandler’s non-traditional comedy “Funny People” won the weekend box office… the also new “Aliens in the Attic” had to compete with other recent family-friendly flicks (last week’s #1 “G-Force” and “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”)… and the horror movie “The Collector” opened in fewer screens than a traditional wide release and debuted at #11 with a decent $3.6 million.

Overall this was the weakest weekend of the summer movie season with the top 12 movies making just barely $112 million – down 20% from last weekend and the lowest figure since April 24-26… the box office is being helped by the comedies “The Hangover” and “The Proposal”. 

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Funny People” – $23.44 million (1st week)

2. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $17.70 million ($255.5 million total)
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 40% from last week) 

3. “G-Force” – $17.06 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 46% from last week)

4. “The Ugly Truth” – $13.00 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 53% from last week)

5. “Aliens in the Attic” – $7.80 million (1st week)

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Guinea Pigs of “G-Force” beat wizards of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” for weekend box office

Wow america… apparently my illness spilled over the theaters… Disney’s “G-Force” beat ”Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” in the wizard’s 2nd weekend… I have to say, I didn’t see that coming.  But, considering how much money “Potter” made in opening week, there was nobody left to see it over the weekend.   New movies “The Ugly Truth” and “Orphan” were 3rd and 4th respectively.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “G-Force” – $32.15 million (1st week)

2. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $30.00 million ($221.8 million total)
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 61% from last week)

3. “The Ugly Truth” – $27.00 million (1st week)

4. “Orphan” – $12.77 million (1st week)

5. “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” – $8.20 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 53% from last week)

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“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” wins weekend

No surprise at all… except maybe how much it made… “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” beat last week’s number one “Bruno” and previous #1’s “Ice Age 3″ and  “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”.

“Half-Blood Prince”, the 6th Potter movie becomes the franchise’s highest grossing movie in its first 5 days with more than $159 million thanks in part to the huge $58 million dollar opening day boost.  Overall, the entire box office was up 15% and ranks as the 7th biggest weekend so far this year.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $79.48 million  (1st week)

2. “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” – $17.70 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 36% from last week)

3. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” - $13.75 million ($363.87 million total)
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 43% from last week)

4. “Bruno” – $8.37 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 73% from last week)

5. “The Hangover” - $8.32 million ($235.88 million total)
(7th week, was #6 last week, lost 16% from last week)

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