Box Office - 'Meatballs' Leads 'Surrogates' on Friday

On Thursday, as we always do, we played Nostradums with the weekend box office. Despite a lot of competition, the verdict was that Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs would probably repeat as the number one movie in the land. And after Friday night's performance, it's on its way to that title. The animated childrens' book adaptation leads Surrogates by about half a million dollars after one day of ticket sales. Of course, there will be some fluctuation on Saturday and Sunday, but most of those possibilities play in favor of Meatballs. Matinee showings, boosted by ticket sales for three, four, or five people in a family, ought to be enough to create more space between the weekend's top two films by the end of the frame. So Meatballs has $5.6 million to $5 million for Surrogates, and those are the only realistic options to win the weekend. Fame arrived with about $3.5 million, and it could hop into second place, but it's not likely. The Informant! is currently in fourth place, pacing for around a $7 million weekend. The new sci-fi flick, Pandorum, is a disappointment, registering under $2 million on Friday. It might not even open in the top five for the weekend. We'll round up the final estimages tomorrow morning, but look for Meatballs to cross $20 million for the weekend, and Surrogates to fall a little short of $15 million.

Comments

[Vince]

Man, you cannot predict the box office lately can you? I admit that I was way high on "Fame" but I honestly thought that the tween audience would come out in droves (and also that it would've gotten SOME good reviews- got absolutely trashed this week). Oh well.

Also, "Surrogates" didn't do nearly as bad as I thought. Good for them?

[Get The Big Picture]

Surrogates might do $17 million, but probably not. Sub-fifteen, I'm guessing. So it's not going to remain as competitive as we said in our forecast. I honestly thought it would win Friday.

[payday]

I really love sci- fi movies. There are more intellectual to watch and it gives us foresee of what is ahead of our time. So whether the movie is great or not it still gives us idea of what the future is. This wasn't a great weekend for sci fi movies. Pandorum is a horror thriller about aliens terrorizing astronauts starting colonies in space. Sci fi success doesn't come easy, so Pandorum not doing well is par for the course – but perhaps figuring out how to translate Surrogates into something the military could use might be worth armed forces loans, if it means less soldiers dying.