Weekend Box Office: September 27-29

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 - $35 million

2.  Prisoners - $11.2 million

3.  Rush - $10.3 million

4.  Baggage Claim - $9.3 million

5.  Don Jon - $9 million

6.  Insidious Chapter 2 - $6.7 million

7.  The Family - $3.6 million

8.  Instructions Not Included - $3.3 million

9.  We're The Millers - $2.8 million

10.  Lee Daniels' The Butler - $2.4 million

It's been a few weeks since we've had any animated fare in theaters, so Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 easily topped the slew of movies for grownups also in theaters this weekend.  The sequel's estimated $35 million this weekend tops the $30 million that the original film opened with in 2009 and went on to earn $125 million.  Expect pretty much the same from this film, since there aren't many family films opening in the next few weeks. 

The new releases were also no match for Prisoners, which dropped 46% from its first-place opening last weekend to earn $11.2 million, although Ron Howard's Rush came close, opening in wide release this weekend with $10.3 million.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, Don Jon, opened with a less-impressive $9 million.  Meanwhile, the romantic comedy Baggage Claim managed to find a place in between Rush and Don Jon with $9.3 million.

Metallica fans had fun this weekend, as their 3D/IMAX extravaganza Metallica: Through The Never earned a healthy $1.6 million at 308 IMAX locations.  Instructions Not Included continues to be the success story of the fall so far, earning $3.3 million and becoming the highest-grossing Spanish-language film released in the U.S. 

Next weekend sees another big release in the Oscar hopefuls category, as the George Clooney/Sandra Bullock space thriller Gravity opens in theaters.  Joining is Runner Runner, which is not an Oscar hopeful, but stars future Batman, Ben Affleck.