Opening day: 'surrogates' and 'fame' have weak fridays while 'cloudy' holds strong

Sept. 26, 2009 9:29 AM PT _This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts._ It’s starting to look like a

cloudy weekend for everything but ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.’’Surrogates’ and ‘Fame’ both had soft opening days, while Sony’s animated film dropped only 31% from its debut Friday

last week to $5.6 million. Animated family films tend to decline even less on a Saturday and Sunday, meaning ‘Cloudy,’ the third movie from Sony Pictures Animation, could fall between 20%

and 25% for the weekend. That’s an extremely small second-weekend drop and would be a sign of excellent word of mouth. ‘Cloudy’ will almost certainly gross over $20 million for the weekend,

giving it a lock on first place. Disney’s science fiction thriller ‘Surrogates’ meanwhile, is heading toward a disappointing opening of under $15 million. The graphic novel adaptation

starring Bruce Willis, which cost $80 million to produce, sold only $5 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada on Friday. ‘Fame’ is also off to a soft start. MGM and Lakeshore

Entertainment’s remake of the 1980 dance flick collected $3.55 million on Friday, putting it on track to gross under $10 million. The film cost $18 million to produce. Overture films didn’t

get good news for its horror film ‘Pandorum’ either. It grossed a paltry $1.55 million on Friday, according to a competing studio, and will likely sell under $5 million worth of tickets

domestically through Sunday. --Ben Fritz