Box Office: 'Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2' Crushes Competition With $35 Million Opening

Credit: Sony Pictures Animation

It wasn't even close at the box office this weekend, as audiences ultimately decided they like food: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 took the top spot with $35 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The family film opened with the fourth-biggest September debut of all time, falling behind last year's Hotel Transylvania, last week's Insidious: Chapter 2, and the all-time champ, 2002's Sweet Home Alabama.

The sequel, which cost $78 million to produce, is following the same trajectory as the first film in the franchise, which opened four years ago with $30.3 million in late September, en route to grossing $245.8 million worldwide.

As for the other films in this week's top 10, Prisoners fell to second place in week two, taking in $11.3 million. This was just enough to beat out Rush, the Chris Hemsworth-starring racing drama, which grossed $10.3 million for third place.

Coming in fourth is Baggage Claim, the Fox Searchlight comedy targeted toward African-American audiences, which earned $9.3 million. The film stars Paula Patton as "a woman who embarks on a 30,000-mile expedition to convince a suitor to marry her so that she isn't the only single person in her family." The movie was strong enough to edge out the directorial debut of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Don Jon, starring Gordon-Levitt as a porn addict embarking on a relationship with a street wise woman played by Scarlett Johansson, took in only $9 million. However, Relativity Media, which acquired the film from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, is satisfied with the film's box office gross.

"We're really pleased. It's a strong gross, and we want to be in the Joseph Gordon-Levitt business," said Relativity distribution chief Kyle Davies. "We think the picture will play well. You can't have reviews this strong without there being a connection to an audience."

The last new entry of the weekend, the half-fantasy/half-concert film Metallica: Through The Never 3D, just missed out on a spot in the top ten, grossing only $1.6 million from 308 theaters. The movie finished at No. 13 for the weekend, despite generally favorable reviews.

You can check out the complete top ten below via Deadline:

1. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 ($35.0 million)

2. Prisoners ($11 million)

3. Rush ($10.3 million)

4. Baggage Claim ($9.2 million)

5. Don Jon ($8.8 million)

6. Insidious: Chapter 2 ($6.6 million)

7. The Family ($3.6 million)

8. Instructions Not Included ($3.6 million)

9. We’re The Millers ($2.8 million)

10. Lee Daniels’ The Butler ($2.4 million)