Weekend Box Office: It's 'Zombieland' versus the 'Toy Stories'

I was surprised at the number of people who proved willing to venture out to the limited-run Toy Story 3-D double feature. The attraction raked in $12.5 million on under 2,000 screens, a feat made even more impressive by the double feature aspect, which obviously reduced the number of available showtimes. Whether the success of the rerelease was due to the love for the films or the current obsession with 3-D isn't clear -- though of course the most likely answer is "some combination of the two." (Certainly a plain vanilla double feature rerelease wouldn't have put up these numbers, but would it have flopped?)

The weekend's top spot, though, went to Zombieland, the un-star-studded but well-marketed and well-reviewed horror comedy. If it does not sink in the coming weeks, it could turn into one of the fall's biggest success stories. I wonder, too, what it will do for the cachet of Jesse Eisenberg; unless you count his very minor turn in The Village, Zombieland is by far the biggest box office triumph in which he's taken part. The busy, hyperintelligent actor hasn't seemed too celebrity-minded, but his stock seems to be steadily rising.

More and the full top 10 after the jump.







$7.5 million for Ricky Gervais's The Invention of Lying is actually a little bit ahead of his last stateside star vehicle, the David Koepp-directed Ghost Town, and it's nothing to complain about. The folks behind Drew Barrymore's winning directorial debut Whip It might justifiably feel more jilted; $4.9 million for this very audience-friendly, commercial flick is disappointing. And it's not like Fox Searchlight didn't try, sneaking the film last weekend and even giving out t-shirts.

Also of note: Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story expanded to around 1000 screens and (also) took in $4.9 million -- not Fahrenheit 9/11 numbers, but more than Sicko could manage. And the crowdpleasing shocker Paranormal Activity did very well in what amount to a stunt release over the weekend. Not sure that means it's going to "break out," but $16,000 per-screen (on 33 screens) means that Paramount's hype machine did a great job.


1 - Zombieland (Sony) - $25.00 ($8,235) - $25.00
2 - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony) - $16.70 ($5,610) - $82.39
3 - Toy Story / Toy Story 2 (Disney) - $12.50 ($7,163 ) - $12.50
4 - The Invention of Lying (Warner Bros.) - $7.35 ($4,306) - $7.35
5 - Surrogates (Touchstone) - $7.34 ($2,489) - $26.39
6 - Capitalism: A Love Story (Overture) - $4.85 ($5,042) - $5.25
7 - Whip It (Fox Searchlight) - $4.85 ($2,820) - $4.85
8 - Fame (MGM) - $4.75 ($1,517) - $16.63
9 - The Informant! (Warner Bros. ) - $3.80 ($1,567) - $26.58
10 - Love Happens (Universal) - $3.80 ($1,567) - $18.91

Next week: The Vince Vaughn/Jon Favreau comedy Couples Retreat is, weirdly, the only wide release. Chris Rock's doc Good Hair hits around 200 screens.