Bludgeoning zombies to death cleverly mixed with laughs in Sony’s Zombieland drew and estimated $9.4 million its opening Friday at the box office. The big bow sets up what could potentially explode into a $30 million weekend opening, well beyond the film’s $23.6 million production budget.
Lightning struck twice for Sony as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs managed a second place Friday in its third weekend of release with $3.7 million. Third place went to the Toy Story and Toy Story 2 3D double feature which drew $3.2 million.
Ricky Gervais’ stock continues to rise with The Invention of Lying scoring $2.5 million or 66% more than what Ghost Town, his last similar comedy, managed its opening day. The opening was good enough to beat out Drew Barrymore’s Whip It which skated to only $1.6 million.
Check back tomorrow for full weekend box office estimates.
