The Sony Studio's third 3-D animated comedy "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" has proven that all its efforts were worthwhile with a hefty US$30.1 million in ticket sales over the weekend in North American theaters, dominating the box office lineup, preliminary estimates collected by North American box office authorities show Sunday.

Adapted from a children book popular in the 1980s, the movie is about a kid named Flint who decided to save his island from food crisis by creating a machine that can convert ordinary water into any food on Earth. This in turn brought about a crisis. A new effort since Sony produced "Open Season" and "Surf's up", the animation premiered on Friday with US$2.5 million in tickets sales being generated from the 3-D IMAX theaters, a proof that this computer-generated genre is winning over more audience.

Among the four movies debuted in top five places this weekend, Warner Bros. "The Informant" came in second with US$10.5 million. Mark Damon's excellent performance is a bright spot with the film, and reports that he had gained 30 lbs in weight to fit in the role won over a number of viewers. Having been shown in the Toronto International Film Festival and drew wide acclaims, it could be one of this fall's first films that could join the Oscars competition of 2009.

The lone top-five holdover from last week was Lionsgate's "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself". It has dropped to third place with US$10 million against a 57 percent drop and now stands at US$38 million in total domestic box office.

Rounding out the top five are: "Love Happens", a Universal romantic romp featuring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart with US$8. 5 million; vampire flick "Jennifer's Body" from Fox with US$6. 8 million featuring Megan Fox.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2009)