Sony Pictures’ Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs easily topped the weekend box office with a 3D-aided $30.1 million, while the three other newcomers didn’t do quite as well.  Matt Damon was not able to get The Informant past $10.5 million, while Jennifer Anniston’s Love Happens stalled at $8.4 million, and sexy Megan Fox wasn’t able to push the horror comedy Jennifer’s Body higher than #5.  Star power on its own doesn’t appear to be enough any more.  Still the total box office raced 11% ahead of last year when Lakeview Terrace opened with $15 million.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): Sept. 18-20, 2009

Sony’s Meatballs debut was certainly no match for the openings of this year’s 3D animated blockbusters, Dreamworks’ Monsters vs. Aliens and Pixar’s Up, but the $30.1 million total was a record for a Sony animated film.  Not surprisingly since it was based on a popular children’s book, 79% of the audience for Meaballs was comprised of kids and their parents.  Two-thirds of Meatballs’ revenue came from 3D and IMAX venues.  With a CinemaScore rating of “A” from viewers under 25, Meatballs could have a profitable run at the box office over the next month.

The Informant’s tepid debut demonstrates that good reviews aren’t enough to propel a quirky, adult-skewing drama to success in the age of Netflix, DVD rentals and downloads.  Matt Damon can hit a box office homerun with a Bourne film, but The Informant was more of a bloop single.

Jennifer Aniston’s romantic drama Love Happens also disappointed with an $8.4 million opening, but since the film only cost $18 million, it should end up making money.  78% of the audience was female, and 71% was over 30.  Sexy starlet Megan Fox’s Jennifer’s Body appealed to younger viewers—70% of its audience was under 25 with females making up 51% of the crowd for the horror film, which fared only marginally better than Sorority Row’s $5 million debut last weekend.

As for the holdovers, Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad fell about 58%, but still finished in third place.  The stylish animated film 9 felt the competition from Meatballs, dropped 50% and slipped to #6.  Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds fell to #7, but with earnings of $110 million it has surpassed the director’s Pulp Fiction to become his highest-grossing film (though it will never catch 1994’s Pulp Fiction in the number of admissions).

Warner Bros.’ Whiteout, which is based on the graphic novel written by Greg Rucka, dropped 58% in its second weekend.  With a 10-day total of just $8.4 million, there is no way that Whiteout will make back its $35 million cost during its theatrical run.