Weekend Box Office- Season Gets ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs,’ ‘Jennifer’s Body’ Goes Untouched

Slow goings at the box office this weekend. We blame the baseball season, since it’s obviously heating up and- oh, wait, the season’s pretty well decided. Well, people are upset about the recession, right? Which explains why “Transformers” only made $400 mi- well, ok, got us there. How about… there’s nothing remotely exciting enough to see? The number one movie is the most reliable of subgenres, the CG-toon “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.” Its debut was much softer than others of its ilk (particularly the recent “Ice Age” installment, which recently became the third highest grossing film of all time outside of America- spittake), and the numbers were definitely goosed by the 3D showings. Was this cheap to make? We have no idea how to calibrate the cost of a CGI-toon, but the cast is pretty much raided from “Saturday Night Live,” so how robust could the budget be anyway? The movie appears to be well-liked, and these sorts of things have legs, so it could easily hang around for the next few weeks until “Where The Wild Things Are.” In short, big success.

Debuting at #2 was the Steven Soderbergh dramedy “The Informant!” It was marketed as a broad comedy, but its likely word got out that it’s definitely a bit of an odd-duck, and not exactly a crowd-pleaser. Matt Damon’s got maybe one more bullet left in his “offbeat role” gun, as he’s got awards-contender “Invictus” before dramas “Green Zone” and “The Adjustment Bureau.” In other words, he’ll soon need a “Bourne Identity 4” before or after yet another Clooney collaboration or two.

Tyler Perry was able to fend off some curious competition, as “I Can Do Bad By Myself” fell to #3, just above the tepid debut of “Love Happens,” a movie so white it blended in into the theater screens. Go ahead, ask anyone who’s seen “Love Happens” and they’ll reply with that blank stare suggesting that they really didn’t see anything that evening. They probably heard Aaron Eckhart bark or something and decided their money was well spent. It’s kind of an art film in that respect.

There’s a chance that teens, the only people who could be, ah, enchanted by the promos for “Jennifer’s Body,” bought an assload of tickets to “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs” and then snuck into Diablo Cody’s R-rated sophomore effort. It’s also possible Saddam Hussein actually did have WMDs stashed away somewhere secret and we just haven’t found them yet. Hey, just playing devil’s advocate here. “Jennifer’s Body” tanked, to put it delicately, debuting at #5 and, our guess, poised for a pretty shameful drop next weekend too. It’s clear why this failed to find an audience- Megan Fox simply did not talk about Michael Bay enough in interviews. The movie almost seemed like an accessory to its soundtrack in the ads, an approach that seems dated simply because its long stopped working – we think the last time that was effective was, maybe, “The Crow”?

In its second weekend, “9” has crawled to a $22 million gross, with $35 in its sights (stitchpunk is the new Tyler Perry!) while “Inglourious Basterds” closes in on $110, already QT’s best domestic showing. The smallest drop in the top ten is “All About Steve,” finishing at #8 with a $27 million total, a likely winner for Fox though all involved would rather be associated with something else. Meanwhile, nice knowing you, “Julie and Julia”- the chick flick du jour finally fell out of the top ten and sits at #12 with a tidy $88 million gross- might Sony keep it in the dollar theaters to goose it to $100? Can it then get past box office juggernaut “Blood Creek”?

In indie news, 19 screens were graced with Jane Campion’s latest “Bright Star,” which took in a decent $190k. In a bit of a surprise, Claire Denis’ “35 Shots of Rum” took home $10.6k on one screen in NYC, which would be the best per-screen of the week if it counted- it’s at the Film Forum in Manhattan, so if you’re in the area, its a must. $10k was also the weekend number for documentary “Fuel,” but it needed four screens to do those numbers.

1. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs- $30.1 million
2. The Informant!- $10.5 million
3. Tyler Perry’s Sermon Disguised As A Movie, Part X- $10.1 million ($38 mil.)
4. Universal Pictures’ Marketing Department Gives Up- $8.5 million
5. Jennifer’s Body- $6.8 million
6. Nein!- $5.5 million ($23 mil.)
7. Inglourious Basterds- $3.6 million ($110 mil.)
8. All About Steve- $3.4 million ($27 mil.)
9. Sorority Row- $2.5 million ($9 mil.)
10. The Final Destination- $2.4 million ($62 mil.)