Sony’s Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs held on to the number one spot thanks to an estimated $24.6m haul in an otherwise subdued weekend that raised the animated film’s ten-day tally to $60m.

Buena Vista released the sci-fi thriller Surrogates starring Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell and Rosamund Pike in second place on $15m, while MGM/lakeshore’s Fame reboot launched in third place on $10m.

Both debuts fell below expectations, as did Overture’s sci-fi horror Pandorum with Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid in sixth place on $4.4m.

Understandably Overture preferred to talk up the excellent limited launch of Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, which took $306,586 from four theatres in Los Angeles and New York and generated a $60,000 per-screen average, beating Overture’s Sunshine Cleaning to become the highest average of the year-to-date.

“We’re out of the gates strong and exceeded our own expectations,” distribution chief Kyle Davies said. “People really like it and that bodes well.” Overture will expand into approximately 1,000 North American theatres on October 2 and take it out in a further couple of hundred over the October 9 Columbus Day holiday weekend.

Warner Bros’ The Informant! fell two places to fourth on $6.9m for $20.9m after two, while Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself in fifth place stands at $44.5m through Lionsgateafter three. Focus Features’ animated tale 9 in ninth place has grossed $27.1m after three, and The Weinstein Company’s Inglourious Basterds ranks tenth on $114.5m after six.

Apparition’s awards hopeful Bright Star climbed 18 places to 16th after expanding from 19 to 130 theatres and added $682,309 for $972,567 in its second weekend.

Overall box office trailed the same period last year by roughly 4.5% as the top films combined for $100.5m.

Next weekend’s wide releases are: Disney’s limited 3-D double bill of Toy Story and Toy Story 2; Sony’s comedy horror Zombieland with Woody Harrelson; Warner Bros’ The Invention Of Lying starring Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner; and there are expansions for Overture’s Capitalism: A Love Story and Miramax’ drama The Boys Are Back with Clive Owen.

Estimated Top 10 North America September 25-27, 2009
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (1) Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Sony) SPRI $24.6m $60m

2 (-) Surrogates (Buena Vista) WDSMPI $15m –

3 (-) Fame (MGM) Lakeshore Entertainment $10m –

4 (2) The Informant! (Warner Bros) WBPI $6.9m $20.9m

5 (3) Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself (Lionsgate) $4.8m $44.5m

6 (-) Pandorum (Overture) Summit Int’l $4.4m –

7 (4) Love Happens (Universal) UPI $4.3m $14.7m

8 (5) Jennifer’s Body (Fox) Fox Int’l $3.5m $12.3m

9 (6) 9 (Focus Features) FFI/UPI $2.8m $27.1m

10 (7) Inglourious Basterds (TWC) UPI $2.7m $114.5m

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