Opening day: 'Surrogates' and 'Fame' have weak Fridays while 'Cloudy' holds strong

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

Photo: Bruce Willis and wife Emma Heming at the premiere of "Surrogates" at Disney's El Capitan Theater. Credit: Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images.

Comments

[K-Cat]

"Fame"? Never heard anything about this and I consume a ton of media. Same thing with Surrogates, aside from a couple 15-second promos. That's always a sign of a turkey so I didn't bother putting it on my list.

Seems the marketers themselves decide beforehand what they want to succeed. These two were clearly not among their choices.

[Ben K]

Could've seen this all coming a mile away, too bad the majority of studios are run by followers who don't know how to make proper decisions.

[Greg Hunicutt]

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" deserves its word-of-mouth buzz and latter-weeks' success. "Cloudy" isn't one of the crappy but big-actors' voiceover animation films there's a lot of on screen. It is one of the most original and fun for a wide age variety films to be released in awhile.