'Box office report' Zombieland takes over

Box office champ!  Courtesy of Sony Pictures.

UPDATE:  Capitalism: A Love Story is expected to finish as high as #5 once the actuals come out later tonight. 

The box office results for the weekend of October 2nd-4th, has Zombies eating Meatballs.  Also making a big return to the box office are some Toys from the attic.  Five new flicks enter the top ten this past weekend.  Here are the studio's estimates (CLICK TITLE FOR REVIEW):

1.  ZOMBIELAND ($24.8 million)

2.  CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS ($16.6 million)

3.  TOY STORY/TOY STORY 2 ($12.4 million)

4.  SURROGATES ($7.4 million)

5.  THE INVENTION OF LYING ($7.3 million)

6.  FAME ($4.8 million)

7.  WHIP IT ($4.7 million)

8.  CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY ($4.5 million)

9.  THE INFORMANT! ($3.5 million)

10.  LOVE HAPPENS ($2.7 million)

Credit Boxofficemojo for the figures.

ANALYSIS:

Sony must be loving life right now.  Having the top two spots this weekend and both flicks performing above and beyond expectations, has the studio making a strong statement as the Fall movie season enters its second month.  Next weekend, both flicks should stay in the top three since the only competition will be Vince Vaughn's Couples Retreat. 

Disney owns the next two spots and received a nice surprise with the 3-D versions of Toy Story 1 & 2 finishing very well.  The double-feature flick will only be in theaters or two weeks, but should add some pocket change to Disney's already established franchise.  This is a good sign for when the studio releases Toy Story 3 in June.

Of the other new releases, the Drew Barrymore directed Whip It and Ricky Gervais's Invention of Lying probably came in a bit under expectations for their respective studios.  Invention of Lying could hang around and make up some profits with weekly screenings.  Whip It could be off the radar by next weekend despite positive critic response.  The movie-going audience seem to be so-so on this product from Fox Searchlight, who did had a great summer in terms of sleeper hits. 

Michael Moore's Capitalism came in right where experts predicted.  This flick is pretty much on point with Moore's other releases in terms of box office performance.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince eclipsed the $300 million mark at the domestic box office.  Domestically, this installment is now has the second highest box office total in the Potter franchise.

Something interesting to note is that all the new releases received very favorable reviews from professional critics (like me).  Its been awhile since that has happened.