New Movie Releases Sept. 27-28: 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2' Meets 'Rush'

Sony Pictures spent most of this past summer watching its big-budget action films get battered at the box office by movies like "Despicable Me 2" and "The Smurfs 2." This weekend, Sony hopes to turn the tables and ride an animated sequel to box office success.

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" opens nationwide on Sept. 27, and various forecasts have it making anywhere from $30 million to $40 million over the weekend. The latter figure might be a bit optimistic; the first film in the would-be franchise made $30.3 million on its opening weekend in 2009. Families haven't had a good new movie-going option in weeks, though, so they may be eager to get out of the house.

Ron Howard's "Rush" goes into wide release this weekend, too. The action drama stars Chris Hemsworth as a Formula One race car driver and has raked in favorable reviews, but it's hard to imagine that American audiences are going to get excited about European race cars, even if Thor is driving one of them.

The third wide release this weekend is "Don Jon," the directorial debut of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It's a steamy comedy-drama that also stars Scarlett Johansson. Gordon-Levitt's role is a departure from his typical nice-guy characters, so it might be a hard sell; on the other hand, it has plenty of name recognition on its side, and critics, for the most part, have liked it.

Director David E. Talbert's comedy "Baggage Claim" is the final wide release this weekend.

All four new releases enter a box-office environment with no returning powerhouses. "Prisoners" won last week's race with only $20.8 million in ticket sales, and after its monstrous $40-million opening two weeks ago, "Insidious: Chapter 2" saw its ticket sales drop off by almost two thirds in its second week.