Looking to break into a 3D animated market dominated by DreamWorks and Disney/Pixar, Sony took a big step this weekend.
Its kiddie-book adaptation "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" opened to $30.1 million, according to studio figures.
Benefitting from a wide-open kids and family market -- no big CGI picture had premiered since Disney's "G-Force" way back in the mid-summer -- the box office take was better than expected for a film that was projected to start out in the mid-20s.
Voice starring Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan and Mr. T, "Meatballs" garnered about $18 million of its total revenue from 1,828 3D locations, 127 of which were IMAX screens.
“The first time I saw that trailer play earlier in the summer, I kind of went, ‘Hello, that works!’” said a distribution executive for a rival studio.
While Sony got on the animation board with a conspicuous start, several other studios saw modest openings that adhered to conservative business strategies.
Prime example: Coming in second with a $10.5 opening was Warner's "The Informant!," a Steven Soderbergh quirky adaptation of Kurt Eichenwald's corporate whistle-blower novel. Starring Matt Damon, the film was projected to at least break the low teens.
Fortunately for Warner, however, the movie was budgeted at only $21 million, according to Warner distribution president Dan Fellman, and the film played well in metropolitan markets “where people may have read the book and the reviews.
“Overall, this was a good weekend for us,” he said. “This film will be profitable.”
Also opening this weekend, Universal's "Love Happens" took in $8.5 million, meeting expectations for a romantic drama modestly budgeted at $18 million. Like Damon, stars Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart both took pay cuts for the project, which was bankrolled by advanced foreign sales. Universal also enlisted Relativity Media as a financing partner.
“The audience was female, as we expected, they came for Jennifer Aniston, as we expected, and the cost was mitigated by foreign distribution and a partnership,” said Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco. “We knew what we had here.”
After a tough summer punctuated by several high-profile money-losing films, Universal has subtly established a bit of momentum of late. It also partnered with Weinstein on Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” which is now up to $110 million domestically and closing in on $100 internationally.
“Every studio has its day under the clouds – that’s behind us,” Rocco added. “ ‘Love Happens’ was a very thoughtfully managed, profitable film.”
Right behind "Love Happens" in fifth place over the weekend, Fox's tongue-in-cheek horror film "Jennifer's Body" yielded only $6.8 million -- a disappointing opening for a film written by "Juno's" Diablo Cody and starring "Transformers'" Megan Fox.
As far as incumbents go, last week’s box-office champ, “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself” finished third, adding another $10 million and bringing its two-week total to $37.9 million.
Overall, however, a rebound weekend for the box-office -- it was up 10 percent over last week at 95.4
