For the second week in a row, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs garnered the top spot on the weekend box office with around $24 million. The film only dropped about 19% from last week’s total, which is very good by industry standards. Historically, this indicates good word of mouth, and bodes well for staying power at the box office.

Bruce Willis’s sci-fi action romp Surrogates didn’t fare as well as expectations, grossing around $15 million.  With a reported budget of around $80 million, Surrogates looks like it will be a disappointment for Disney’s Touchstone label. In third place was MGM’s remake of Fame.  Seems the likable cast wasn’t enough to get people in the seats this weekend.

Steven Soderbergh’s  The Informant! came in fourth with almost $7 million.  In just two weeks it has almost recouped its $22 million budget, good news for Warner Brothers. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself scooped up $4.75 million for fifth place.

The new horror/sci-fi release Pandorum made a dismal $4.4 million.  Maybe the studio should have pre-screened the movie for critics after all.  At least people would have been aware it was out there. The next three in the top ten are all considered disappointments, but if you look at what their total gross is versus their budgets, that is hardly the case.  

Love Happens (weekend gross $4.3 million, total gross $14.7, budget $18 million);  Jennifer’s Body (weekend $3.5 million, total $ 12.3 million, budget $16 million) and 9 (weekend $2.8 million,  total $27 million, budget $30 million) all look like they are going to be profitable, due to their smaller budgets. Inglourious Basterds ($2.7 million) rounded out the top ten.

Until next week, there is your weekend breakdown.

WARNING: This review contains minor spoilers, when noted.

It feels like genuine sci-fi, humans vs. aliens films are few and far between these days. Which is why, after seeing the trailer for Pandorum, I was so excited. Fortunately, Pandorum won’t disappoint any die-hard fans of sci-fi, especially if you’re also a lover of the blend of sci-fi and horror.

Pandorum centers around Bower (played quite convincingly by Ben Foster), who wakes up from extended hypersleep on a spacecraft, with no idea who he is or why he’s on the ship. Soon after, Payton (Dennis Quaid), wakes up too, and they join forces to try to figure out where they are and why in the world they’re awake. As they gain back their memories, they realize they’re not the only humans on board…and that humans aren’t the only things on board.

What this film does well (and I was a bit skeptical about this at first) is it puts the viewer right into the action and horror, with little to no backstory or introduction into the world of the film. Other sci-fi/horror films, like Event Horizon or Sunshine, work to make you feel safe and secure in your surroundings before they start scaring you.

With Pandorum, we’re clueless and freaked out from the moment Bower wakes up, and we experience with him the same fear, anxiety, and confusion that he goes through as he explores the ship and learns about the horrors within. We’re on the same page as our main character throughout the whole film, and it makes his journey and discoveries ours as well.

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We’ve been following the upcoming film Pandorum a bit here at The Flickcast and were able to bring you an early look at the trailer and a cool pic of some of the cast. Now, we’ve got the final poster for the film to share with you today. Before we go on, in case you’re not familiar with the film, it concerns some astronauts who wake up on their spacecraft and have no memory of where or who they are.

Once awake, they discover something horrible has happened, most of the rest of the crew is dead and they are not alone. After that, there’s lots of running, shooting, yelling, death, explosions and various mayhem which fans of horror/sci-fi/action films will probably eat up with a giant spoon. After watching the trailer and reading a bit about the film, I think I understand some things about it. Looking at the poster, however, I’m not exactly sure what I’m seeing — which could be good or bad.

To some extent, I like the fact that I need to know more about the film after looking at the poster. On the other hand, it would be nice to get a bit more info about the movie from it other than the ominous tag line “Fear what happens next.” However, it is good to see a poster that tries to be different instead of just featuring the heads of the film’s main stars standing there looking earnest. In my book, that alone puts Pandorum ahead of many other films coming out this year.

Pandorum, which stars Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet and Cung Le, hits theaters September 18th. Check out the new, big poster after the jump.

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One of the great things about Comic-Con is all the cool trailers for movies you might not have heard of that get released. One such movie is the horror/sci-fi action film Pandourm. In case you’re not familiar with the film it concerns two astronauts who wake to find themselves drifting through space and with no memory of who they are.

They believe that they must be the only ones aboard the spacecraft, but can hear sounds coming from its center. Exploring the spacecraft, the astronauts start to learn that a terrible event has occurred on board which might affect the survival of the entire human race. Damn, isn’t that always the way it is?

Pandorum, which features Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster and Cung Le, hits theaters on September 18th. Check out the full trailer after the jump.

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