Weekend Box Office Sept. 27-29: 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2' Performs as Forecast
by EG
Parents and children finally got an opportunity to go back to the movies last weekend, and they didn't have to go see "Despicable Me 2" again. The lack of family fare at the box office lately helped "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" to perform up to expectations over an otherwise quiet weekend.
The animated sequel brought in an estimated $35 million, which was pretty much in line with predictions and slightly ahead of the first-weekend gross of the first film. With no competition from other family films on the near-term horizon, "Cloudy" has a good chance of remaining strong for the next several weeks.
The weekend's three other new wide releases had less successful openings. Ron Howard's "Rush" took in about $10.3 million, enough to put it in third place behind last week's "Prisoners" (which itself saw a big drop-off from its opening weekend). The comedy "Baggage Claim" grossed $9.3 million, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's gritty rom com, "Don Jon," pulled in only $9 million. None of these films was expected to open big, but considering that they're going to face stiff competition in the grown-up-movie category next week (the highly anticipated "Gravity" opens on Oct. 4), their weak openings could mean long-term trouble.