Capitalism Works for Michael Moore!

Filmmaker's latest doc opens huge in limited release; Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs stays No. 1 at weekend box office

The nation's financial meltdown proved a gold mine for Michael Moore.

Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore's latest him-versus-them adventure, was a bottom-line success in very limited release, averaging more money at each of its theaters than any film this weekend. Or this year.

Overall, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs remained No. 1, with an estimated $24.6 million Friday-Sunday, thanks to remarkable staying power—and the unremarkable debuts of Bruce Willis' Surrogates ($15 million) and Fame ($10 million).

Drilling down into the numbers:

• Capitalism played at four theaters and made $240,000, which works out to a stimulating average of $60,000. By comparison, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs averaged about $8,000.

• Since opening Wednesday, Capitalism has grossed $306,586, leaving it just shy of matching last year's $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

• As big as Capitalism was, Moore's last documentary, Sicko, about the health-care system, was a little bit bigger in its debut (albeit on one screen, not four). Capitalism goes wide starting next week.

• Surrogates, which per the poster campaign starred a bunch of robot models, opened bigger than any Bruce Willis movie this decade, save for Live Free or Die Hard, Tears of the Sun and Sin City, which wasn't really a Bruce Willis movie.

• That Willis may have had rougher debuts likely will provide little comfort to Disney, which probably won't see Surrogates make good in theaters on its $80 million investment.

• If the Fame remake underwhelmed, at least it did so in relative proportion to its budget, which was only $18 million.

• Here's a case where the movie math really didn't add up: The new thriller Pandorum cost $40 million; it opened with $4.4 million.

• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs isn't the biggest CGI thing ever, but it's not giving much ground, either. In its second weekend, ticket sales were off less than 20 percent from its debut. The $100 million movie's domestic take now stands at $60 million.

• Among the other second-week holdovers, Matt Damon's The Informant! ($6.9 million) held well; Jennifer Aniston's Love Happens ($4.3 million) and Megan Fox's Jennifer's Body ($3.5 million) sustained the standard 50 percent markdown. 

• Paranormal Activity isn't the next Blair Witch Project. At least not yet. The horror cheapie, made just for $11,000, showed potential though, making $80,000 in late-night showings at 12 theaters.

• Also in limited release, the bacchanal-celebrating I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell ($368,760) outgrossed, theater for theater, most of the Top 10 movies, en route to grossing out those with fond memories of Gilmore Girls' Logan.   

• The new biopic about designer Coco Chanel, Coco Before Chanel, was the second biggest little movie of the weekend, taking in $177,137 at five theaters.

• John Krasinski had Office-like success with his writing-directing debut. Brief Interviews With Hideous Men was a specific hit, grossing $20,600 at one theater, per Box Office Mojo.

• Sandra Bullock's All About Steve ($2.3 million; $30 million overall) exited the Top 10 after more than quadrupling its Rotten Tomatoes rating; The Final Destination ($1.3 million; $64.5 million overall) departed after becoming the top-grossing entry in its franchise.

Here's a look at the weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, $24.6 million
2. Surrogates, $15 million
3. Fame, $10 million
4. The Informant!, $6.9 million
5. Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself, $4.8 million
6. Pandorum, $4.4 million
7. Love Happens, $4.3 million
8. Jennifer's Body, $3.5 million
9. 9, $2.8 million
10.  Inglourious Basterds, $2.7 million

(Originally published Sept. 27, 2009, at 9:50 a.m. PT)