Box Office: 'Cloudy' weekend for Megan Fox and Jennifer Aniston as 'Meatballs' dominates

This was not a happy weekend for supposed "stars" Megan Fox and Jennifer Aniston.  Obviously, no movie star has a resume without a few duds in the mix (Will Smith being the obvious exception), but the extremely disappointing returns of Fox's "Jennifer's Body" and Aniston's "Love Happens" are clear wake up calls to the actresses and their agents because this weekend both stars were creamed by CG animated spaghetti.

According to Box Office Mojo, "Cloudy" has a mouthwatering debut for Sony Pictures as it cooked up $30.1 million over the weekend. That's not spectacular for a picture that cost $100 million plus, but Sony Pictures will take it and hope good word of mouth fuels the returns over the next few weeks.

Placing second was the Matt Damon comedy "The Informant" with $10.5 million.  That was in line with pre-release tracking and Warner Bros. no doubt hopes older audiences discover the movie over the next few weeks.

Last weekend's champ, Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," fell to the third slot dropping 57% from its opening frame.  With another $10 million in the bank, "Can Do Bad" has done very well by already taking in $37.9 million.  So, far it's performing similarly to 2007's "Why Did I get Married" which ended up with around $55 million which was considered successful enough to put a sequel into production.

Aniston's "Love Happens" found the fourth slot with only $8.4 million.  That's a huge disappointment for the tabloid favorite who is coming off the wide release hits "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Marley and Me." In fact, the last time an Aniston movie opened so poorly was 2001's "Rockstar." Even the Weinstein B-movie thriller "Derailed" found $12 million in 2005.  Ms. Aniston will not be happy, but "Dark Knight" aside she should have realized that Aaron Eckhart is pretty much box office poison as his resume is littered with films that should have done more business than they actually did (check out his track record here).

More of a shocker though, was the Fox's "Body" making only $6.8 million.  Considering how popular Ms. Fox was perceived to be and the talent associated with the film including the "Juno" team of screenwriter Diablo Cody and producer Jason Reitman, this has to be a head scratching disappointment for 20th Century Fox.  They didn't help matters by ignoring the clever, witty side of the supernatural comedy and trying to make it look as trashy as possible in their marketing campaign. You have to wonder if sister division Fox Searchlight or Lionsgate would have handled this release better.  Consequently, we'll never know if Ms. Fox's blunt comments in the media have turned off some of her fanbase.  The results, however, are a big red flag to Warner Bros. that the actress  may not help open their Western adventure "Jonah Hex" next summer as much they expected her too. Yes, one little opening can have repercussions all across Hollywood.

These are the weekend box office estimates according to Box Office Mojo.  Final figures are available on Monday.

1. "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs," $30.1 million.

2. "The Informant," $10.5 million.

3. "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," $10 million, $37.9 million to date.

4. "Love Happens," $8.4 million.

5. "Jennifer's Body," $6.8 million.

6. "9," $5.4 million, $22.7 million to date.

7 "Inglourious Basterds," $3.6 million , $109 million to date.

8. "All About Steve," $5.8 million, $26.6 million to date.

9. "Sorority Row," $2.4 million, $8.8 million to date.

10."The Final Destination," $2.3 million, $62.3 million to date.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.