It’s always exciting when you’re going into a weekend, and you can think to yourself, “wow, we have a legitimate shot at a record here.” It doesn’t happen all that often, but considering how low the competition for big openings is in September, such an honor is still a somewhat dubious one. Even still, our number one film fell short of a record, but still had a strong opening.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

CWACOM2 opened to a solid, though not spectacular $35 million. That’s a full $7 million shy of Hotel Transylvania and the September record. It’s not terribly surprising that CWACOM2 failed to improve on its predecessor much; kids’ movies rarely do, for whatever reason. Nonetheless, it still bodes well, because the word of mouth for this one is pretty strong. If it comes close to the stamina of its predecessor, a final gross around $125 million is very possible, especially considering it has pretty much all of October to itself, as nothing targeting kids comes out any time soon.

Prisoners, last weekend’s champ, fell a somewhat troubling 46% to $11.3 million. I thought the word of mouth would be stronger, but it’s possible that film is just too dark for even adult audiences. If you’re interested, check out Dukemich’s review or watch our movie show, wherein we discuss the film. The way things look now, Prisoners might end up around $65 million. It has a total of $39 million through ten days.

Expanding into nationwide release after a successful run in Los Angeles and New York last week, Rush grossed $10.3 million from about 2300 theatres. That gives it a good, but not great theatre average of $4,490. It may just be that Formula 1 racing is totally unappealing to American audiences. Maybe it will take a week or two for word of mouth to catch on. I’m hoping Dukemich and I will get to see this soon, so expect a review in the next week or two.

Well, I didn’t seen this coming. Baggage Claim outgrossed Don Jon. Time and again, I’m surprised by films that appeal to niche demographics. Anyway, Baggage Claim made $9.3 million while Don Jon pulled in an even $9 million. Both are actually solid debuts, but Baggage Claim is more impressive, considering there was far less hype and promotion, and it doesn’t have a single marketable star. And if I didn’t watch the trailer for it while writing my September movie preview, I would’ve had no clue what the movie even was, much like Instructions Not Included (more on that soon.)

Insidious Chapter 2 continues its fast decline down the top ten, this time dropping 51% to $6.8 million, bringing the running total to $69.5 million. In seventh, we have Instructions Not Included, which is no longer a mystery film to me. A friend of mine saw the film and divulged its plot; but even still, I went over a month having no clue what this movie was, and I still haven’t seen one single tiny bit of advertising anywhere. That said, the surprise success pulled in $3.4 million, off 37%, for a grand total of $38.6 million.

The 8 week old We’re the Millers stays in the top ten for yet another weekend, this time grossing $2.9 million. The comedy hit slid 37% and has amassed $142.4 million. The Butler dropped 42%, one of its larger drops, but it’s running out of steam now. The potential Oscar nominee grossed $2.4 million, lifting its total to $110.3 million.

Tenth place goes to…..a movie I’ve never heard of. This seems to be happening a lot lately. Anyway, Enough Said made $2.1 million from just 227 theatres, which was enough to give it the highest per theatre average in the top ten. Well, another mystery film. Let’s see how I can go without finding what this one is. And with that, we’ve finally gotten through the doldrums of September. Things figure to pick up in October, starting next weekend with Runner Runner and Gravity next weekend. I’ll give my thoughts on both films in my forthcoming October movie preview, which should come out in the next few days. Until we meet again.