--- description: Talk about climate change. The weekend weather report was sunny for the Sony animated feature Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and drizzly at best... title: Box-Office Weekend: Mighty Meatballs image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba0058e45ffe2a9d/698a4b429d83e841a4b98e95/360_meatballs_0920.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Box-Office Weekend: Mighty Meatballs by [Richard Corliss](/author/richard-corliss/) Sep 20, 2009 4:00 AM CUT  Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs Cloudy With A Chance of MeatballsSony Pictures Animation / AP by [Richard Corliss](/author/richard-corliss/) Sep 20, 2009 4:00 AM CUT Talk about climate change. The weekend weather report was sunny for the Sony animated feature _Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs_ and drizzly at best for Matt Damon, Jennifer Aniston and Megan Fox. According to official studio estimates, moviegoers paid $30.1 million for the cartoon feature based on a 1978 children’s book with a meteorological metaphor. In Judi Barrett’s 1978 story, a small town has no restaurants or grocery stores because the three-times-a-day weather rains soup, snows mashed potatoes and blows hamburgers. The _Meatballs_ writer-director team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (_How I Met Your Mother_ on TV, the virtually unseen _Extreme Movie_) added a love interest and a villain and juiced up the physical comedy. Like most recent animated features, _Meatballs_ made most of its money with jacked-up prices: more than half the screens were showing the movie in 3-D. [(Read TIME’s report: “Coming to the Living Room: 3-D TV”)](https://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1901705,00.html "undefined") As with last week, when Tyler Perry’s _I Can Do Bad All By Myself_ was champ of the North American box-office, this weekend’s winner easily outgrossed the cumulative take of the other three movies opening in wide release. Damon’s business comedy _The Informant!_, directed by Steven Soderbergh, pulled in a so-so $10.5 million, and got an abysmal C- rating from the CinemaScore exit poll of moviegoers — that’s worse than _Bruno_! _Love Happens_, a soupy romance starring Aniston and Aaron Eckhart, earned a tepid $8.5 million. _Jennifer’s Body_, a horror comedy written by _Juno_‘s Diablo Cody, and promising a girl-on-girl kissing scene between _Transformers_ temptress Fox and _Big Love_ babe Amanda Seyfried, did only $6.8 million. Megan’s body makes for a perky pinup, but even her boy-fans can do simple arithmetic. Why should they pay for a glimpse of Fox nudity when they can get a closer, longer look for free on Egostastic.com? No, _Meatballs_ made the big news; but it wasn’t unequivocally good news. Animated features account for three of the year’s top seven domestic moneymakers: _Up_ at $291.5 million, _Monsters vs Aliens_ at $198.4 million and _Ice Ace: Dawn of the Dinosaurs_ at $195 million. Abroad, that prehistoric comedy is even more mammoth. By reaching a $660 million total last week, it became the third all-time highest-grossing movie in foreign territories, trailing only _Titanic_ and _The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King_. Sony, the distributor of _Meatballs_, would dearly love to join Disney-Pixar, DreamWorks and Fox-Blue Sky as a studio with a fat annual annuity from CGI features. But the numbers for _Meatballs_, while dominant in a slow Sept. week, aren’t likely to vault it to the top of the cartoon class. The movie’s gross should end up somewhere between that of its previous two animation efforts: the OK _Open Season_ (2006) and the disappointing _Surf’s Up_ (2007). [(See TIME’s gallery of animated movies for adults)](https://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1861107,00.html "undefined") Having earned an impressive A- from CinemaScore, and with no family-movie challenge until the 3-D releases of the Pixar classics _Toy Story_ and _Toy Story 2_, the _Meatballs_ movie has a chance to cook up some good numbers. But Sony spent a lot to make a bit. _Meatballs_ cost about $100 million to produce, not including prints and advertising, as opposed to $22 million for _The Informant!_, $18 million for _Love Happens_ and $16 million for _Jennifer’s Body_. Those three films were in effect playing a different game — small ball — in the same park. Autumn is small-ball season at the movies. Audiences go back to school and work and free themselves of the weekly addiction to attending the new blockbuster wannabe. Box office totals drop precipitously; last Wednesday was the first day since Mar. 4 that no movie cracked $1 million at North American theaters. Studios essentially take their vacation from megamovies, releasing leftovers instead of cinema sirloin. So the industry forecast for the next couple of months, until the big pre-Christmas movies, has to be cloudy with a chance of dog food. Here are the official studio estimates for this weekend’s top 10 movies: 1\. _Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs_, $30.1 million, first weekend 2\. _The Informant!_, $10.5 million, first weekend 3\. _Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself_, $10.1 million; $37.9 million, second week 4\. _Love Happens_, $8.5 million, first weekend 5\. _Jennifer’s Body_, $6.8 million, first weekend 6\. _9_, $5.5 million; $22.8 million, second week 7\. _Inglourious Basterds_, $3.6 million; $110 million, fifth week 8\. _All About Steve_, $3.4 million; $26.7 million, third week 9\. _Sorority Row_, $2.5 million; $8.9 million, second week 10\. _The Final Destination_, $2.4 million; $62.4 miliion, fourth week [See TIME’s Fall Entertainment Preview](https://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1920701%5F1920666,00.html "undefined") Box-Office Weekend: Mighty Meatballs ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6910340/box-office-weekend-mighty-meatballs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6910340/box-office-weekend-mighty-meatballs/"},"headline":"Box-Office Weekend: Mighty Meatballs","datePublished":"2009-09-20T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-22T16:04:18.497Z","description":"Talk about climate change. 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