Box Office - 'Meatballs' Wins Again with $24 Million

A very strong second weekend for Cloudy With a a Chance of Meatballs, which only tailed off 19% from last weekend to easily win the box office derby with $24.6 million. That gives the Sony animated film should cross its $100 million budget number in a couple more weeks, and with the foreign markets opening soon, it should be easy to wind up in the money here.

There are different results ahead for two of the other new releases this weekend. Surrogates opened soft with $15 million, so if you use the rule of thumb that most movies make one-third of their total box office in the opening frame, this will barely make back half of its budget. Pandorum will do even worse; with a $40 million price tag, the new sci-fi flick earned about 1/8th of that amount in its debut, placing sixth on the weekend rundown with under $5 million.

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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.

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Movie Review - 'Pandorum'

Pandorum Starring Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, and Cam Gigandet Directed by Christian Alvart Rated R

I'm not entirely certain it's a good thing, but Pandorum seems to rely on heavily on your familiarity with movies of its kind. It's a mix of science fiction and suspense, the sort of chemistry that has made for instant classics (Alien) and the mostly forgettable (Event Horizon). And again, the film gives bonus points if you're steeped in this tradition. While not wholly original, director Christian Alvart does a few things perfectly, and it's always how the story is told more than what the story is that determines how good a film can be. But it's still a bit of a fixer-upper. The film features a storyline that would have fit Rod Serling's Twilight Zone: Two astronauts, Bower and Payton (Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid), wake up from that terrific fictional innovation that allows space travelers to nod off for years at a time without aging. There are always bugs to work out when movies use this device, and here, it renders each astronaut a blank slate. The amnesia adds a layer to the mystery that awaits them. On a transport mission to the only other habitable planet in the universe, Bower and Payton can't find the rest of their crew. What happened to them and where did they go? How could they go anywhere? After all, this is a lone ship hurtling through the depths of space. There is an inherent problem with mysteries, which, in part, this is at its most fundamental level: You will forever be trying to solve it, trying to outguess the characters. It's human nature. Therefore, some movies try to lead you one way or another so you guess the way the director and writer want you to guess. That makes twist endings easier to manufacture.

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Fearless Forecast - Mmmm...More 'Meatballs'

It could be a repeat performance for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by the time the tickets are counted on Monday. Earlier in the week, I kind of had my mind made up that it would be, but the weekday numbers have been discouraging. An 85% drop on Monday followed by a much closer race with The Informant! on Tuesday than you'd expect, and on while it should improve a little on Wednesday and Thursday, it may not be strong enough to pull out the victory over Surrogates.

The new Bruce Willis sci-fi flick is the only movie that really has a chance to dethrone Meatballs, though. Disney isn't blitzing the multiplexes the way it normally would in late September, but with the first two Toy Story movies back in theaters next weekend in 3-D, it should still be a good month for the House of Mouse. Beyond Surrogates, there is another new sci-fi film, Pandorum, which has very little chance of making a huge dent even though it's getting a run comparable to its competition. Supposing Friday night viewing is strong and those audience members spread the word, it has a better chance, but I'd still be surprised if we see a $20 million weekend. Then again, District 9 was one of the surprise hits of the summer using that exact formula, so it's possible if not probable.

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New 'Pandorum' Featurette Gives Us Some Answers

While I still want to be a little in the dark on Pandorum when I sit down to see the film this week, we so often share featurettes of new releases that I thought this would give you a little more background and a few new pieces of video. However, if you want to remain completely in the dark, you may want to skip this video.

Cam Gigandet (Twilight) explains what in the hell Pandorum really is, or at least, what it means. I'm actually glad to have that revealed and I don't think it spoils anything, really. Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster lead the cast, but I've got a sneaking suspsicion that German actress Antje Traue might steal a little thunder here. If nothing else, I'm encouraged by the words of producer Jeremy Bolt, who says in this little video, "It's very difficult to be original [in sci-fi]. What happens in Pandorum I have not seen in any other science fiction film." That's a lofty claim, especially for a movie that's already getting its fair share of comparisons.

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