As expected, predicted and prophesized, the wonderfully strange world of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 enticed enough families to propel it to the top of the weekend box office.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 proved magical enough.

It didn’t manage to outgun Hotel Transylvania, though, as the animated comedy grabbed $35m - $7.5m less than the spooky flick managed last September.

But breaking records wasn’t the film’s primary target; it built upon Cloudy 1’s release back in 2009, building a strong platform over the coming month to succeed. That’ll be enough for Sony.

In its second week of release, Prisoners dropped from the top spot but managed to hold on to second with $11.2m. With $38m in the bag already, it’ll surpass its $40m budget easily; the critical praise is just a bonus.

RushRush has been a hit with the critics.

Another film in week two is Rush, the highly acclaimed drama centered on the 1970s rivalry between Formula One rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda. The Ron Howard film gleaned just over $10m.

A critical mauling didn’t stop the Paula Patton rom-com Baggage Claim from entering the top five on its debut. Fox will be happy with the $9.5m dent in the production budget. Don Jon rounds off the quintet of this weekend’s most successful films with $9m.

Horror flick Insidious Chapter 2 grabbed $6.7m to see it nab a sixth spot – not bad considering it’s in its third week. And two more third-week films play out seventh and eight spot: The Family and Instructions Not Included with $3.6m and $3.3m respectively.

The ButlerThe Butler has been a box office smash.

Two top ten stalwarts finish things off for the weekend. We’re The Millers spends its eight week lingering around, adding another $2.8m to its $142m total. And, rather unbelievably, Lee Daniel’s The Butler remains in the running despite having been out for almost a century.

Mojo had the figures.