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It has rained at BOP headquarters for approximately 40 days. Meatballs would actually be nice.

Kim Hollis: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs opened to $30.3 million. Is this more, less, or about what you expected from this Sony Animation release?

Josh Spiegel: Even though I imagine it will be called only a decent result, I think this result is pretty impressive. This is one of only a few films from Sony Pictures Animation, and may end up its most successful. Granted, with 3-D prices as a positive, Cloudy should have hit closer to $40 million, but the movie may have solid word-of-mouth as it's actually pretty good. Though it only has two weeks with 3-D theatres, the result is nothing to sniff at and may lead to more impressive rewards.

Pete Kilmer: I think it's about right...families were certainly needing something new to see this weekend.

Marty Doskins: I think that you have to look at this less of an animated film versus being a kids' book adaptation. In terms of an animated film, it didn't do that well. However, kids' books being made into movies have had an awful bad streak. I don't think there's really that many breakout successes of this type. I think it did pretty well if you look at it from that perspective.





Reagen Sulewski: We're starting to see a middle ground for animated films being established, behind the Pixars and Shreks and (sigh) Ice Ages, but above your Doogals and such. This release fits right in there, and no small thanks to 3-D, I'm certain. At the risk of being repetitive, I do still wonder how long studios can count on this gimmick to provide an instant hit. I'd say we've got about another year before some major 3-D release gets passed on.

Sean Collier: I think we've finally hit upon a children's 3-D release that there is positively nothing to say about. And yet, opine we must. The result is fine but not all that impressive, which is just about right; it'll have a decent run, sell some DVDs, and escape our collective memory. Again - very little to remark on. I'd say that it could've done better with the good reviews, but I'm not sure that's true - this early in the school year, it had a ceiling, and it just about hit it.

Jim Van Nest: I'll go against the grain here and suggest that the 3-D aspect didn't have as great an impact as others would think. I'd wager that a similar number of butts would have been in seats anyway, because it is a book adaptation and apparently a pretty popular one. Both of my kids have read it and my entire 50+ Cub Scout Pack was jazzed about seeing it. I just think this was a good title to animate and get out there. Now, if they'd only work on A Wrinkle In Time.

Kim Hollis: I feel like Sony missed an opportunity here. This appears to be a very, very well received film, with an engaging-looking animation style and a premise that just naturally lends itself to the 3-D technology. I'm not saying that $30 million is bad, just that I think with a little more oomph in the marketing and a better release date, this movie might have done about $10 million more on opening weekend.

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