The Weekend Report: September 27, 2009

A trio of new titles couldn’t catch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for the weekend box office crown. Cloudy was hardly overcast as it dipped a modest 20% in its sophomore session to gross an estimated $24.4 million.

But it was disappointing returns for the freshman class. The science-fiction thriller Surrogates ranked second with $14.7 million and a slot behind the resurrected Fame clocked in with $10 million. Further down the list Pandorum was lost in space with $4.3 million.

Regional and niche activity proved to be more buoyant. In Canada, the big screen sequel to the TV hit The Trailer Park Boys raised significant laughs of $1.4 million and in Quebec Coco Before Chanel contributed about half of the North American box office of $340,000. On the Bollywood circuit there was OK response of $163,000 for What’s Your Raashee? At 77 sites.

Exclusives were dominated by a rousing $58,000 per screen for Michael Moore’s provocative Capitalism: A Love Story at four venues. There were also initial signs of strength for the drama The Boys are Back of $48,700 from six screens and the spooky Paranormal Activity raised $85,300 at a dozen specialized sites. Also notably was the $21,700 Manhattan exclusive of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

Still, the alternative stream couldn’t stave off overall box office downturns.

Tracking had anticipated roughly a $20 million bow for Surrogates and the stylish marketing and intriguing premise appeared to be raising audience interest. However, there was some concern that ad images might be confused for a fashion or perfume promotion and the b.o. result suggest that there may have been some mixed messages.

Similarly Fame had some advance predictions at $15 million on the high side. And while the film displayed core appeal with a younger, female demo, there was limited response from the generation that remembered the 1980 original or its television spinoff.

The session also featured 502 Saturday sneaks for the upcoming distaff roller derby opus Whip It. It also attracted younger women and studio exits indicated an encouraging 65% overall capacity. Also of note, the latest Harry Potter crossed $300 million domestically.

Weekend revenues pushed toward $95 million that translated into a 7% erosion from the prior weekend. It was a slighter steeper 8% drop from 2008 when debuts of Eagle Eye and Nights in Rodanthe led with respective tallies of $29.1 million and $13.4 million.

The spectacular if limited first blush for Capitalism might just bear out that Michael Moore’s partisan political tilt fares better when examining the aftermath of catastrophe rather than getting into the fray as his prior effort Sicko did on health care. Regardless, he remains the rare bird as the preeminent non-fiction commercial dynamo.

by Leonard Klady