'The Informant!' & 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' battle 'Basterds' on weekend movie chart

September 20, 10:11 PMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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The whistle-blower comedy The Informant! and animated family pic Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs both made strong debuts the weekend of Sept. 18-20, nabbing the top two slots at the box office, but Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds stayed atop the AME weekend movie chart** for the third straight weekend, riding superior word of mouth (8.6 IMDB user rating, No. 1 among the box-office top 20) and critics’ reviews (88 tomatometer, No. 2) to edge the former two.

The Informant!, starring Matt Damon, posted strong numbers across the board. Audience reaction was top-notch, with IMDB users scoring it a 7.7 (No. 4), while critics were wowed to the tune of a 67 Metacritic tally (No. 5). The pic’s opening weekend box office ($10.5 million, No. 2) was nearly half its budget ($22 mil) and almost five times the combined amount of director Steven Soderbergh’s last two films (The Girlfriend Experience and Che).

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the weekend’s box-office king with more than $30 million in grosses, also won critical acclaim, notching an 87 at Rotten Tomatoes (No. 3). Word of mouth thus far has been slightly more subdued, with Meatballs scoring a moderately tasty 7.1 at IMDB (No. 8).

Megan Fox may be the female sex symbol du jour, but not enough filmgoers were seduced by Jennifer’s Body to lift it into the top 5 on the AME weekend chart. The movie scored a middling 6.0 among IMDB users (No. 12), while critical response was similarly mediocre (47 Metacritic, No. 11). Box office of $6.8 million placed the horror pic at No. 5 for the week.

Off the chart, Jennifer Aniston’s Love Happens proved a romantic buzz kill, scoring a decidedly unhappening 16 at Rotten Tomatoes (No. 18). Audiences weren’t too friendly either, grading the pic a lowly 5.8. Box office of $8.4 million (No. 4), while lackluster by Aniston’s standards, isn’t bad given the flick’s $18 million budget.

The AME weekend movie chart for Sept. 18-20, 2009:

1) Inglourious Basterds (1)

2) The Informant! (NR)

3) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (NR)

4) District 9 (2)

5) 9 (3)

6) Julie & Julia (4T)

7) (500) Days of Summer (4T)

8) Jennifer’s Body (NR)

9) I Can Do Bad All By Myself (7T)

10) The September Issue (NR)

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**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.)