Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland hacked away at the competition, making an estimated $25 million during its opening weekend. The new horror comedy hit expectations, proving that the sub genre is still very much alive. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, this film once hyped up at this year’s Comic-Con paid off big time at the box office. The same cannot be said for the three other films that were in competition that got swept under the rug thanks to the never ending zombie craze.
Still holding strong onto second place is Sony Pictures Animation’s own Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, taking in another $15.8 million. The children’s book adaptation, starring the voice talents of Bill Hader and Anna Faris, at this point will probably continue making a strong stand until Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are claws into theaters this mid-October. Then we trickle over to the re-release of Disney/Pixar’s monster cgi animated franchise, Toy Story. For two weeks only, the first two films are released into theaters nationwide in 3D for everyone to watch again, and to get everyone refreshed for the third edition to the films this next summer. The 3D event got the kids back into the theater and wanting more Buzz Lightyear and Woody, bringing in $12.4 million to the table.
The ones that seemed to struggle to find an audience was the Ricky Gervais starring film The Invention of Lying and Drew Barrymore’s Whip It. The off beat comedy from Gervais, that also included the talents of Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe, got people to ‘see the truth’ with a whopping $7 million weekend opening. Drew Barrymore’s directing debut became fairly unnoticed, only managing to take in $4.6 million despite fairly positive reviews.
Honorably bad mentions go to the Christian Alvart directed film Pandorum which has only managed to make $7.8 million despite its $40 million dollar budget. Not all comic book adaptations make back their own bank, and the Bruce Willis starring science fiction thriller Surrogates is a prime example. Sadly the alternative present set film can only wrangle up an estimated $26 million though its budget of $80 million says otherwise. The Diablo Cody written horror comedy Jennifer’s Body joins the ranks of almost-there makers who take in $14.7 million despite its low $16 million budget. At this point one would figure with such apparently hot commodity like Megan Fox, one could make their budget back easily. Here’s the rest of the top ten for the weekend below:
Weekend Box Office (October 2-4)
- Zombieland ($25 Million)
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ($15.8 Million)
- Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D ($12.4 Million)
- Surrogates ($7.2 Million)
- The Invention of Lying ($7 Million)
- Whip It ($4.65 Million)
- Fame ($4.62 Million)
- Capitalism: A Love Story ($4.4 Million)
- The Informant! ($3.6 Million)
- Love Happens ($2.7 Million)
Let’s get ready for some more horror and other films with the releases of Trick R Treat onto DVD this tuesday. The rest of the films going out into theaters are An Education, Free Style, Trucker, The Damned United, and Couple’s Retreat.







[...] I have yet to see Zombieland. However, this hasn’t stopped the film from raking in some serious dough, hopefully a sign that more horror comedies will be headed our [...]