Top Shelf at the Box Office! 9/21/09

Surprisingly, this turned out to be a pretty good weekend in terms of box office numbers for the ol' thirty mile zone. But for me it was a bit of a letdown, as both Jennifer's Body and The Informant ended up being less fun than I expected. Not that any of that matters for this column. I'm just sayin'.

1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs- $30.1M

Ok ok, I'll go see the damn movie. Last week I stated that I had no desire to see this film, unless it does abnormally well and is heaped upon with praise. So it looks like I've got a reason to check it out. It's opening is the largest for an animated flick in September ever. What I'm finding interesting about all these numbers lately is that they are being bolstered by an abundance of 3-D theatres, which cost more, and IMAX screenings, which also cost more. So less people are seeing these films, but due to the increased cost they are pulling in greater dollars. Not sure what that says about the true popularity of movies like this, but since it's top dog, the least I can do is see the thing.

2. The Informant!- $10.5M

$10.5M doesn't sound like much, and to be honest it really isn't much of an opening, but for a Soderbergh film that isn't nearly as mainstream as the TV spots would have you believe, this has to be encouraging. The tone of the film is much more in line with his most recent independent efforts, and not at all the screwball comedy it's being pitched as. Considering the film only cost $20M to produce, I'm sure Soderbergh sees this as a success, even if the studio was expecting something a bit higher. It'll be interesting to see what happens next week now that people are realizing what the film actually is. I'm betting a massive drop in revenue, probably near the bottom of the list.

3. I Can Do Bad All by Myself- $10.1M/$37.9M

Now that the old women and their church groups have stopped organizing bus trips to see this movie, it takes a nice big 57% nosedive. If only I could organize some sort of national Bingo weekend the next time a Perry movie is released it would cut his profits by half.

4. Love Happens- $8.46M

The studio says that 78% of the audience for this film was female. They also reported that bears sh*t in the woods.

5. Jennifer's Body- $6.8M

This should come as no surprise. All appearances to the contrary, Megan Fox is not an established box office draw. Just because she's hot doesn't mean people are going to flock to a movie that basically features nothing but her in skimpy gear. Now with that said, it's certainly one of the reasons I wanted to see it. They would've been better served hyping up that this was Diablo Cody's follow-up to Juno, and maybe pushing the Amanda Seyfried character a bit more. As it stands, this is a monumental dud of an opening considering the massive marketing campaign behind it.

6. 9- $5.46M/$22.8M

It's not often that a major release adds theatres to it's run at this stage, but 9 actually added an additional 400 theatres this week. It still dropped nearly 50%, but the additional theatres means that there's something of a vote of confidence for this film.

7. Inglourious Basterds- $3.6M/$110M

Now officially Tarantino's highest grosser surpassing Pulp Fiction.

8. All About Steve- $3.4M/$26.7M

9. Sorority Row- $2.49M/$8.87M

You people suck for not supporting this movie. Do I need to put up that picture of the cast, again?

10. The Final Destination- $2.38M/$62.4M

So many horrors of similar type have pretty much spelled the end of this film, although it's tally is nothing to sneeze at.