It's obvious that we're in a bit of a slump when it comes to the quality of the movies being released right now. This is probably because the big summer season is over, all the kids are back in school,, and the studios are saving their good material for the holidays. What I don't understand is that if the kids are back in school how on earth is CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS number 1 again?!

The movie had some good numbers last weekend, when it did $30 million, earning it the top spot. The audience dropped off a bit during their second week, making only $24 million. That's not much by Hollywood standards, but it was still enough to beat out the Bruce Willis sci-fi vehicle SURROGATES, the remake of the 1980 musical FAME, and the outer space thriller PANDORUM.

SURROGATES, which I was not a big fan of, took in only a measly $15 million dollars, coming in at number two. I wasn't a big fan of MEATBALLS either, but I like it more than the convoluted SURROGATES. I'm kinda glad that it did poorly because of a kids' movie because, it kinda makes it look worse.

The musical FAME premiered at number 3, with only $10 million. My guess is that MGM, which was once world-renowned for its great musicals, wanted to appeal to the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL crowd, but ultimately failed. The new FAME has been critically panned, as can be see over at Rotten Tomatoes, where its score is currently at 28% (only slight less than SURROGATES' 37%).

PANDORUM, though, did even worse, with only $4 million to its name, enough for it come in at number 6. The movie had the bad luck of coming out during the same week as SURROGATES. Both of these movies are counter-programming to some of the lighter movies out right now, like LOVE HAPPENS and THE INFORMANT!, but only SURROGATES had Bruce Willis' star power, which is usually enough to attract any guy looking for a manly movie.

Check out Box Office Mojo to see how the rest of the box office looks.