Sony (NYSE: SNE) had a tasty weekend. The studio's new computer-generated cartoon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, finished the box-office race in first place. According to Boxofficemojo, Meatballs (and I am only shortening the title to Meatballs because, from what I've seen, most media outlets are using this standard; as far as I'm concerned, the movie should be shortened to Cloudy so as to avoid confusion with the classic Bill Murray comedy), made $30 million at domestic theaters as of early estimates. Don't worry, though; even if the estimates come in a little lighter than expected, Sony is going to remain top dog.
That's because the next two films on the chart are each credited with around $10 million. Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Informant! and Lionsgate's (NYSE: LGF) Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself settled into the second and third spots, respectively. These two could conceivably change places once final stats are delivered to analysts.
Perry's new project is holding up well in a relative sense, although I thought it might do a bit better in its second weekend. And I was counting on the Matt Damon picture to bring in a little more money considering the funny marketing campaign it leveraged. Love Happens, from General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal, didn't cause too many waves in its first weekend. It came in fourth, but it was a modestly budgeted entry (well, $18 million is modest when it comes to Hollywood economics), so maybe it will do all right once all is said and done.
Many headlines have jumped on the failure of Megan Fox's Jennifer's Body. The News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) horror flick is a conundrum. It was a competitive weekend, no doubt, but considering Fox's celebrity equity, a fifth-place finish and a measly $6.8 million just doesn't add up. Looked like a story her teen audience should have found appealing.
Could all the publicity surrounding the recent backlash against her ubiquitous fame be responsible for the lukewarm response? Difficult to say, but so much was made of the vicious diatribe supposedly written by a few insiders who worked with the actress (incidentally, I find it hard to believe this was actually written by individuals who worked with Fox and it has crossed my mind that it all may be a joke; the informal style is too akin to that of an anonymous Internet commenter, and besides, I don't think you could remain too anonymous with all the information included in the text) that it is reasonable to assume that potential patrons were turned off enough not to splurge for a ticket. Poor News Corp. The company probably thought it had a slam dunk. Unfortunately, costly stars won't always guarantee a hit.
As for investing/trading opportunities with the stocks mentioned, I'm not sure how high Time Warner is going to go, but for those who get in and get out very quickly and can generate satisfactory gains on very small movements in share price, it's probably not too crazy to suggest that the conglomerate's shares will be above $30 at some point (if it hasn't already happened by the time this gets published). GE is also looking interesting to me as a trade.
Disclosure: I own GE; positions can change without notice.
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