Weekend Box Office
1) Zombieland - $25 million
2) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - $16.7 million
3) Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D - $12.5 million
4) The Invention of Lying - $7.35 million
5) Surrogates - $7.34 million
6) Capitalism: A Love Story - $4.85 million
7) Whip It! - $4.85 million
8) Fame - $4.7 million
9) The Informant! - $3.8 million
10) Love Happens - $2.7 million
It took Woody Harrelson and his zombie-killing abilities to hold off a forecast of raining meatballs this weekend. Zombieland took the top spot at the box office this weekend, making a killing with an estimated $25 million. The film had the widest release of the weekend (3,036 theaters) and scared up an impressive $8,235 per-screen average. The film already is a profitable one, recouping its $23.6 million production budget back in the first weekend, so we'll have to see how far this zombie comedy can go in its run. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which took the box office crown for the past two weekends, dipped to second place with an estimated $16.7 million gross.
While there were two other new releases out in semi-wide release, they were both overshadowed by two animated classics in 3D. Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D came in third place this weekend with an estimated $12.5 million box office take. The 3-D double-feature was released in 1,745 theaters and held a strong $7,163 per-screen average.
The other two new releases didn't fare so well at the box office this weekend. The Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying took fourth place with an estimated $7.35 million and Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It! took in $4.85 million and tied for sixth place with Michael Moore's new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, which expanded from it's limited-release four-theater run to 962 theaters.
Two other new released made some waves in limited release this weekend as well. The new Coen Brothers film, A Serious Man, took in $252,000 from just six theaters for an impressive $42,000 per-screen average. The basketball star LeBron James documentary More Than a Game also scored with a $197,000 gross from just 14 theaters which netted a solid $14,071 per-screen average.
Next weekend only brings one new film into wide release with the Vince Vaughn ensemble comedy Couples Retreat and The Damned United, Bronson, An Education and the Chris Rock documentary Good Hair opening in limited release. Check back in seven days to see who comes out on top at the box office next week.