'Zombieland' alive and kicking atop weekend movie chart; 'Whip It,' 'Paranormal Activity' impress

October 4, 3:15 PMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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In a fiercely competitive weekend in theaters, the comedy horror movie Zombieland—filmed in Georgia, by the way—topped the AME weekend movie chart**, grossing $25 million to also capture the box-office crown. Audiences had a bloody good time, rating newcomer Ruben Fleischer’s film an 8.3 at IMDB, good for No. 3 among the box-office top 20. Critics also dug the pic, which stars Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, giving it an 89 tomatometer score (No. 4).

It was a glorious weekend all around for movie fans, with critics deeming a whopping 13 films out of the B.O. top 20 "fresh" according to Rotten Tomatoes. And 13 of the B.O. 20 scored 7.3 or higher among IMDB users, indicating that viewers were similarly enthralled.

With all the strong films out there, it was actually a decade-old pic that nabbed the No. 2 slot on the AME chart. Toy Story / Toy Story 2 3D scored a perfect 100 at Rotten Tomatoes and raked in $12.5 million, good for No. 3 at the box office.

Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, turned critics’ heads to the tune of a 67 Metacritic score (No. 7). Word of mouth was slightly above average, with filmgoers grading it a 7.6 (No. 9). Box office for the Ellen Page starrer was $4.9 million on 1,720 screens, modest but not terrible given the pic’s $15 million budget.

The week’s highest scorer among audiences was the word-of-mouth smash Paranormal Activity, which scored an 8.7 at IMDB. Made for an astonishing $15K, the Oren Peli horror pic has also thrilled critics, with its 93 tomatometer score good for No. 2 this week. Despite showing on only 33 screens, it still cracked the box-office chart top 20.

Ricky Gervais, the endlessly funny star of the original “Office,” scored his biggest hit with U.S. audiences, with The Invention of Lying laughing up $7.4 million at the box office, compared to about $5 million for last year’s Ghost Town. Audiences reacted to Gervais’ brand of truth-telling with a 7.7 IMDB score, good for No. 7. Critical response was decent, but Lying’s Metacritic score fell 13 points lower than Ghost Town’s.

The weekend’s other major debut, the new Michael Moore documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, just missed the AME top 10, primarily due to its relatively weak 6.3 IMDB user rating, which is the lowest of Moore’s career. (Sicko, by comparison, has tallied an 8.3.) Reviews were generally good, with Capitalism ringing up a 72 tomatometer score. Box office was a solid $4.9 million on less than 1,000 screens, and Capitalism is already one of the top 20 highest-grossing documentaries of all-time.

The AME weekend movie chart for Oct. 2-4, 2009:

1) Zombieland (NR)

2) Toy Story 3D (NR)

3) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (1)

4) Inglourious Basterds (2)

5) Whip It (NR)

6) Paranormal Activity (NR)

7) The Invention of Lying (NR)

8) District 9 (4)

9) Bright Star (7)

10) The Informant! (3)

Related Articles:
1) Best of the '00s: The top 10 documentaries of the decade
2) Seraphine review: Portrait of a most unusual French artist
3) Meatballs proves tasty; Surrogates, Pandorum, Bright Star debut on weekend movie chart

**Tired of reading about the latest dumb action flick, lame gross-out comedy or played-out torture porn horror pic that took home the box office crown? Wish the media balanced screaming headlines about box office winners with more stories about “the top reviewed films” or the “films audiences loved the most”?

I’m with ya. And that’s why I’ve devised a new ranking system (see list above) that combines critics’ reviews, audience response and, yes, box office to deliver a comprehensive list of what’s hot in theaters in each weekend. (The previous week’s chart position is listed in parentheses after the film title.)