Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs declined only 19% as it claimed its second weekend box office title, earning an estimated $24.6 million.  The family-oriented CGI film rode solid word of mouth and benefited from a lack of competition in its category as it posted the lowest first-to-second week decline since Liam Neeson’s Taken, which dropped just 17% last February.  The arrival of a double feature of the first two Toy Story films in 3D next weekend could provide some competition, but Meatballs gives every appearance of having very strong “legs.”

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): Sept. 25-27, 2009

Rank	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./Screen
1	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	$24,600,000	3,119	$7,887
2	Surrogates	$15,000,000	2,951	$5,083
3	Fame	$10,033,000	3,096	$3,241
4	The Informant!	$6,915,000	2,505	$2,760
5	Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself	$4,750,000	2,120	$2,241
6	Pandorum	$4,408,000	2,506	$1,759
7	Love Happens	$4,327,000	1,898	$2,280
8	Jennifer's Body	$3,500,000	2,738	$1,278
9	9	$2,832,000	2,025	$1,399
10	Inglourious Basterds	$2,722,000	1,960	$1,389

Disney’s adaptation of Robert Venditti’s Surrogates graphic novel was expected by many analysts to challenge Meatballs for the top spot, but the $80-million science fiction action film earned a disappointing $15 million, averaging $5,083 from just under 3,000 theaters.  The first weekend audience for Surrogates was 58% male and 54% over 25.  Surrogates didn’t find favor with the critics (only 36% positive), but with this sort of sci-fi actioner word of mouth is much more important than reviews.  Surrogates’s star Bruce Willis’s action films have demonstrated great endurance at the box office in the past, so the jury is still out on Surrogates.  Next weekend’s performance should deliver the verdict on this adaptation of the Top Shelf graphic novel (which has definitely benefited from the movie with increases in sales in both comic shops and bookstores).

 

Surrogates fared better than this weekend’s other newcomers.  The remake of Fame flopped its way to a disappointing $10 million, while the horror release Pandorum performed even more feebly than September’s other horror releases Sorority Row and Jennifer’s Body, which averaged a weak $2,500 per venue.  Pandorum managed only a pathetic $1,759 from 2,506 theaters.

 

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra fell to #16 and looks to finish right around $150 million.  Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds remained in the top ten, but just barely at #10 where it earned $2.7 million and brought its cumulative to $114.4 million, which makes it’s the #18 film of 2009 so far, just ahead of District 9 ($113. 5 million) and Watchmen ($107.5 million).