Meatballs Eats Up Box Office

Zombieland drops to second; Paranormal Activity shines

(NEWSER) - Poor reviews proved no barrier to box office success this weekend as Couples Retreat did $35.3 million worth of business, dethroning Zombieland after a 2-week reign. The big news of the weekend was overachieving thriller Paranormal Activity, which broke a record for a feature playing on fewer than 200 screens, Variety reports. The top five: More»

Woody Harrelson vehicle dethrones Meatballs in debut weekend

(NEWSER) - Zombieland raked in $25 million to dominate the box office in its debut weekend, easily dethroning Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which had held the top spot the previous two weekends. The R-rated comic horror movie starring Woody Harrelson drew an overwhelmingly young audience, with 56% under 25, Variety reports. Director Drew Barrymore's Whip It disappointed, taking in just $4.85 million and tying for sixth place with Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. The top five: More»

(NEWSER) - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs dominated the box office for the second straight weekend, racking up $24.6 million in ticket sales and running 10-day total to $60 million. That represents just a 19% fall-off from its opening weekend performance, a notably strong showing in a generally weak autumn market, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Surrogates, a sci-fi flick starring Bruce Willis and a bad wig, lagged expectations in totaling $15 million. More»

On top of Hollywood, Matt Damon plans on slowing down

(NEWSER) - Twelve years after the breakthrough Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon has become one of Hollywood’s hottest names—and now he plans on cooling off, the Boston Globe reports. “You shoot all day, have dinner and work on a screenplay until midnight and then get up at five and start all over again,” the 38-year-old father says. “I enjoyed it but I’m not going to do that anymore.’’ More»

Tyler Perry's newest success defies advertising formula

(NEWSER) - The box office was good to I Can Do Bad All By Myself, which took in $24 million this weekend, USA Today reports. Tyler Perry’s latest flick rode the same under-the-radar marketing blitz that drew legions of Christians and African Americans to his Madea movies. The digitally-animated 9 made $10.9 million this weekend for a five-day haul of $15.3 million, while Inglourious Basterds ($6.5 million), All About Steve ($5.8 million), and The Final Destination ($5.5 million) rounded out the top five. More»