‘Zombieland’ Eats All Competitors

“Zombieland” opened at number one this weekend, bringing in an estimated $25 million. The Woody Harrelson-led horror comedy earned itself the second highest opening in zombie-movie history, with only the remake of “Dawn of the Dead” pulling in more. “Zombieland” made profit in its first weekend, handily clearly its budget of $23.6 million.

All of these numbers were enough to finally kick “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” out of first place. This is the animated comedy’s third week out, and it can be argued that it would still be number one if it weren’t for the 3D re-release of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2.” It only dropped 33 percent this week, faring much better than “Fame” and “Surrogates,” which continue to under-perform, each dropping over 50 percent from the previous week.

“Toy Story/Toy Story 2” in 3D was the only other wide released opening film this weekend that really showed much life, pulling in $12.5 million this weekend. (It’s kind of scary to think that zombies and a re-release of toys that come to life are two of the top three grossing movies this weekend. I really hope this isn’t the zombie apocalypse.) If you take into account that Disney only had to pay for the digital 3D remastering of the flick (and that you can already get both movies on DVD), $12.5 million is a lot of money. It says a lot about the digital 3D experience.

The other three films to open wide this weekend were “The Invention of Lying,” “Whip It!” and “Capitalism: A Love Story.” “The Invention of Lying” is the only of the three to have its first weekend on the charts, but the Ricky Gervais vehicle flopped. The better reviewed “Ghost Town” flopped last September, but “Lying” actually beat “Ghost Town” in its opening weekend. “The Invention of Lying” pulled in $7.35 million to open. Maybe Gervais’s film career is going to slowly build. What does it matter anyway? He gets checks in the mail for every single version of “The Office.”

Michael Moore’s “Capitalism” moved from 4 screens to 962, helping it pull in almost 2,000 percent more than it did last weekend. The documentary earned $4.85 million this weekend, narrowly edging the first weekend performance of his previous film “Sicko,” but nowhere close to “Fahrenheit 9/11.” It was expected to be the number one movie, and Michael Moore actually encouraged many students under 17 years old (the movie is rated R) to sneak in. Granted, that wouldn’t have pushed it anywhere closer to the number one spot, but tying “Whip It!,” which opened in almost 800 more theaters, is pretty respectable.

Here’s the top 5, courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.Com:
WEEKEND TOP 5 STUDIO ESTIMATES, OCTOBER 2-4, 2009

Rank. Movie Title (Distributor)
Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. Zombieland (Sony / Columbia)
$25.0 million | 3,036 | $25.0 million | 1

2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony / Columbia)
$16.7 million | 2,977 | $82.4 million | 3

3. Toy Story / Toy Story 2 (3D) (Buena Vista)
$12.5 million | 1,745 | $12.5 million | 1

4. The Invention of Lying (Warner Bros.)
$7.4 million | 1,707 | $7.4 million | 1

5. Surrogates (Buena Vista)
$7.3 million | 2,951 | $26.4 million | 2