Thanks in part to a killer trailer and strong word-of-mouth, Zombieland was alive and kicking at the box office, scaring up $25 million for the top spot, according to early estimates from Hollywood.com Box Office. The Sony Pictures release marks the best debut of star Woody Harrelson’s career, and very well could kick off the umpteenth revival of the undead at your local cineplex. With its potent mix of big laughs and scares, the zombie comedy (or zomcom, as has quickly become the shorthand for the film in the blogosphere) looks to make a tidy killing in an October surprisingly devoid of juicy R-rated fun; a solid “A-” Cinemascore rating doesn’t hurt either.
More good news for Sony Pictures on its stellar run in the second half of 2009: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs continues to be the surprise sleeper of the fall, dropping just 33 percent in its third weekend with $16.7 million and $82.4 million total. And Disney-Pixar’s minor gamble at mounting a limited-run Toy Story/Toy Story 2 double feature in 3-D looks to have paid off quite handsomely. Even though many theaters could only manage three screenings a day, Woody and Buzz still rounded up $12.5 million in just 1,745 theaters, snagging third place. That certainly bodes well for the public’s appetite for Toy Story 3, due next summer.
Two other comedies headlined by beloved funny people making their directorial debuts opened this weekend to less-than-gleeful returns. Ricky Gervais’s The Invention of Lying laughed up $7.4 million in 1,707 theaters for fourth place; while that’s certainly better than the $5 million debut of 2008’s Ghost Town, Gervais’s last film as a star, it still landed short of many estimates. But at least it beat out Drew Barrymore’s roller-derby film Whip It!, which limply rolled to sixth place with $4.9 million in 1,720 theaters. (The Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller Surrogates flopped between them at fifth place with $7.3 million, a 51 percent drop for a $26.4 million two week total.)
Michael Moore, meanwhile, should be (moderately) happy: His latest documentary Capitalism: A Love Story banked $4.9 million in its expansion to almost 1,000 theaters, besting the $3.6 million semi-wide opening of 2007’s Sicko, his previous film. Still, that figure is nowhere near the $23.9 million 2004 opening of Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Ah, that free market — such a fickle mistress.
Finally, by far the best per theater debut went to the Coen brothers, who opened their well-reviewed A Serious Man in six venues for a most impressive $41,900 per theater average. And Paramount’s unconventional release strategy for the ultra-low-budget horror flick Paranormal Activity continues to look scary smart, with the film selling out midnight screenings in all 33 cities screening the spook-fest, banking a hair-raising $16,000 per screen. (The film will finally expand to regular all-hours showings starting next weekend.) Overall, box office was down a slight 1 percent from last year, when the horror film kiddie comedy Beverly Hills Chihuahua terrified charmed a nation.
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Go see Zombieland; it’s good fun!
I love a good zombie movie.
Zombieland was awesome GO SEE IT.
I wanna see Zombieland!
Zombieland was great, but I feel a little bad Whip It didn’t do better cause it was funny and heartfelt without being corny.
Zombieland..The last fun movie..now its time for Oscar Bait season
What about Paranormal Activity? the indie horror films don’t get any love?
They mentioned it in the article. PA can’t make a serious run at the Top 10 because Paramount is drastically limiting the number of locations, screens, and showings.
I read from box office mojo that zombieland production budget was 23.6 million – so it has made more money in first week
@ m.
It’s a great # but just a fun-fact for you – a film only keeps around 55% of its final gross. The production budget doesn’t include it’s marketing and ad budget also. It will still be a very profitable movie.
yeah i knew about marketing budget, but didn’t know that a movie keeps only 55% of it’s final gross. Thanks for the info
best movie action
Surragates gets beat by 10 year old Toy Story = Automatic Failure.
Don’t forget that Surrogates was released last week and made around 20 mil, so that statement’s kind of misleading. On the other hand, if Toy Story beat Surrogates’s total box office in one week (like Jennifer’s Body, which made roughly 12.5 mil in two weeks), that looks even worse for a new movie.
I got Ghost Town last night so I am going to watch that before I go see The Invention Of Lying
Ghost Town was the most underrated film of last year, it should have been a Monster Hit..it was charming and funny,and I hope it develops a Cult Following!
I agree on Ghost Town-great movie & that Tea Leoni is my idea of a lady.
“Zombieland” was awesome! I recommend it!
I saw “A Serious Man”, which was very good! It’s a different movie, so I’m glad it did well. Hopefully that will continue with the wide release.
What a bite!-this is a flick I can really sink my teeth into.”I like my Zombies crispy with blue cheese dip, please…”
Saw Meatballs in 3d and they showed the trailer for A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. That looks cool.
Looks like a good batch of movies are out this month.
I can’t believe that Whip It ended up with so little play. It was funny, touching, and very well made. I hope positive word of mouth spreads.
I am dying to see Paranormal Activity but once again the studios don’t like releasing good movies to a wide audience, just like they didn’t with The Hurt Locker.
The Hurt Locker was too depressing.
What were you expecting? A feel-good war movie? The Hurt Locker was genius.
Do movies starring Jen Garner as the lead ever do super great? The studios better pay attention and stop casting her in lead roles. My mom friends can’t stand her “I’m just a normal mom” bit and therefore skipped the ricky gervais film altho we like him. We went to see zombie instead and woody and the kid were hilarious! C’mon hollywood – less jen garners, more woody/real actor types!!!
Woody Harrelson,a great reason to watch Zombieland.He is really a great actor.
Saw it and loved it! Can’t wait to see it again!!!
Not as great as SHAUN OF THE DEAD but still very funny. And the surprise cameo was a treat.
How many of these comments are posted by the movie studios, some sounds a little too gleeful. Don’t believe everything you read, people.
Zombieland was very good – a nicely played combo of comedy and gross-out horror. Have to see it a few more times before I can properly compare it with Shaun of the Dead, though I’ll say that Zombieland seems to have more laugh-out-loud moments while SoD maintains it’s comedic momentum better.
Zombieland was excellent. Right up there with Shaun of the Dead.