Sunday, September 20, 2009

Black Sheep @ The Box Office: Take an Umbrella


There was plenty of action in the Top 5 this week at the box office with four new titles taking up four of the five spots. Only one of these titles was actually successful though. Breaking Sony Animation’s record for best opening day on Friday with $8.1 million, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS went on to capture the weekend and the honour of third largest September opening ever (behind SWEET HOME ALABAMA and RUSH HOUR). Audiences were starved for family entertainment and they certainly filled up on this one. I would expect many second helpings in the weeks to come.


Toronto International Film Festival titles, THE INFORMANT! and JENNIFER’S BODY went wide this week. Steven Soderbergh’s second picture this year has earned some serious Oscar buzz for star, Matt Damon, and rightfully so. Sadly, this was not enough to drum up a lot of interest at the box office with a tepid $10 million start. Megan Fox tried to break past her TRANSFORMER association and as it turns out, people don’t really care about her unless she is surrounded by metal – even when the film title specifically refers to her most intriguing asset. The only other festival title to hit general theatres was Jane Campion’s BRIGHT STAR, starring Oscar hopeful, Abbie Cornish. It too saw a similar reception to THE INFORMANT!, pulling in an average of only $10K per screen – solid but not stellar.


In other box office news, Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Echkart fizzled in fourth with LOVE HAPPENS. Tyler Perry’s I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF stumbled 57% in its second week, pretty much on par with all of Perry’s previous directorial efforts. And Quentin Tarantino’s INGLORIOUS BASTERDS surpassed PULP FICTION in terms of gross to become the biggest domestic hit of his career.

NEXT WEEK: They’re hoping you remember their name as FAME remakes its way onto 3000+ screens. Bruce Willis goes sci-fi with SURROGATES (2700 screens). PANDORUM will try to scare the crap out of everyone on 2500 screens. And two more TIFF titles, Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY and Steve Hicks’s THE BOYS ARE BACK with Oscar hopeful, Clive Owen have their platform debuts.

Source: Box Office Mojo

No comments: