Friday's B.O. Mama mia, that's a number one meatball film!

Moviegoers spend money on 'Meatballs'
Sony toon earns $8.1 million, 'The Informant' lands second

By ANTHONY D'ALESSANDRO

With a smorgasbord of choices at the multiplex, including headliners
by Jennifer Aniston, Matt Damon and Megan Fox; Friday moviegoers’
savored Sony’s 3-D toon "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," shelling
out $8.1 million.

"Meatballs" easily earned the best opening day ever for a Sony
Pictures Animation feature, out-pegging its previous champ "Open
Season" which made $6.2 million in the fall of 2006. With 1,828 of the
3,119 playdates for "Meatballs" being 3-D equipped, Sony is sure to
see an opening frame that outstrips the $23.2 million generated by
"Season," particularly during the school year when weekend matinees
make all the difference to a family film at the B.O.

In addition, "Meatballs" beat the opening day of Sony’s summer 2006 3-
D motion-captured animated pic "Monster House" ($7.4 million),
however, that film wasn’t produced under the Culver City studio’s toon
unit.

Among wide releases, "Meatballs" owned the day’s highest theater
average with $2,596.

Based on the popular children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett,
"Meatballs" features the voices of James Caan, Anna Farris, Lauren
Graham, Neil Patrick Harris and a number of "Saturday Night Live"
thesps including Bill Hader, Will Forte and Andy Samberg.

Warner Bros.’ R-rated caper comedy "The Informant!" slotted second
with an estimated $3.7 million off 2,505 in line with the studio’s
expectations. "Informant" tells the story about a neurotic exec at an
agri-industry company who turns whistleblower and exposes his firm’s
price-fixing tactics to the FBI. Taking an avant-garde approach toward
casting, director Steven Soderbergh enlisted an array of comedic
performers to perform straight-person roles in the pic including Joel
McHale, Patton Oswalt and Paul F. Tompkins among several others.

Last weekend’s number one film, "Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By
Myself" slid 64% to third yesterday with $3.09 million off 2,255. In
eight days, "Bad" is currently counting a domestic B.O. of $31
million.

Universal’s romantic drama "Love Happens" with Jennifer Aniston and
Aaron Eckhart opened in fourth with $3.08 million off 1,898
engagements. While that figure is at the lower end of the spectrum in
terms of Aniston’s opening days at the B.O., that number can be
attributed to "Happens" theater count, which is lower than usual for
the actress. Aniston’s recent vehicles have cleared respectable
opening B.O. figures with 2,900-plus bookings. U has little to lose on
"Happens" given the pic’s price tag of $18 million and that fact that
it is financed 50-50 with Relativity Media.

Fox’s R-rated horror-comedy "Jennifer’s Body" penned by Diablo Cody
and starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried took hold of fifth with
$2.8 million off 2,702. Despite the latest brouhaha over the
lackluster performance of horror films, the production cost for
"Jennifer" is an estimated, thrifty $16 million.

Currently counting a domestic total of $107.5 million, Weinstein Co.’s
"Inglourious Basterds" is on the verge of becoming Quentin Tarantino’s
highest grossing film at the domestic box office today, surpassing the
$107.97 million racked up 1994’s "Pulp Fiction." During the latter end
of its run, the B.O. for "Pulp Fiction" was propelled toward the
century mark thanks in part to its Oscar noms. "Basterds" ranked sixth
yesterday with $1.2 million, dipping 36% on 2,519.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118008870.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

On Sep 19, 6:52 pm, Derek Janssen <ejan... RemoveThis @nospam.verizon.net> wrote:
> Mr. Hole the Magnificent wrote:
>
> > Moviegoers spend money on 'Meatballs'
> > Sony toon earns $8.1 million, 'The Informant' lands second
>
> > By ANTHONY D'ALESSANDRO
>
> > With a smorgasbord of choices at the multiplex, including headliners
> > by Jennifer Aniston, Matt Damon and Megan Fox; Friday moviegoers
> > savored Sony s 3-D toon "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," shelling
> > out $8.1 million.
>
> Okay, will someone--preferably someone with kids who's read the original
> book in his life (which lack probably accounts for the overgenerously
> "What a funny idea!" reviews it's gotten so far)--PLEASE tell the rest
> of us normal human beings why it's getting 80-90%'s on RottenTomatoes?
>
> For the non-Pixar phobic, this thing looked a mess even by Sony
> standards, never mind "Probably Dreamworks anyway" standards.
> Avoiding non-Pixar movies like the plague may have reached religious
> proportions, but it's just good sense--What, are they going to stand
> there and tell us that *another* studio randomly hit upon figuring out
> how to make us care about characters and story development instead of
> slinging Shrek-envy zingers?
>
> We need a witness to speak up....What's going on???  0_0
>
I can't speak to the good reviews (the laugh out loud moments our
reviewer mentioned didn't make me laugh out loud) and I haven't seen
Meatballs but maybe it's a hit because of an effective 3D trailer with
stuff flying out at the audience. That's what people want when they
see 3D. Forget the immersive experience. They want stuff flying out
of the screen into the audience. That was why The Final Destination
was a hit. Also, it's been a fairly fallow period for family friendly
releases, what with pictures like TFD, The Inglourious Basterds,
District 9. Sure, there was the latest Madea last week but salvation
through hunky guys and Jesus perhaps isn't something for the little
ones.