1. Inglourious Basterds- $37.6M
My name is Lt. Aldo Raine, and I you each owe me 37 million American scalps. And I want my scalps! Hard to believe that Basterds opening is the highest grossing in Quentin Tarantino's storied career, but it kicks the ass of his previous high earner, Kill Bill vol. 2. Business was boomin' overseas as well, hauling in an additional $27.5M. The reason why this movie was such a success compared to others? Easy to follow marketing campaign. It's Quentin Tarantino Does War Film. That alone is enough to put butts in seats. The question now is how well does it hold up? Competition this week is genre-specific with Halloween 2 and The Final Destination the only real contenders.
2. District 9- $18.9M/$73.5M
The Prawns are pleased. Last week's champeen only fell 49% from last week, a number that is way below the norm. This implies strong word of mouth and firm staying power for the Peter Jackson sci-fi film. At this point District 9 has more than doubled it's production cost, making it easily one of the top 3 most successful films of the year.
3. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra- $12.5M/$121M
Hard to gauge whether or not GI Joe is a rousing success. Certainly it's $222M worldwide take is no small potatoes, but it's budget including marketing was astronimcal. This week it fell only 44% which is much better than estimates, and the film seems to have good traction overall. It might have something to do with this..
That's just a hunch.
4. The Time Traveler's Wife- $10M/$37.4M
5. Julie & Julia- $9M/$59.3M
As expected, the story of Julia Child and the boring chick she inspired is proving to have quite the pleasant aftertaste with moviegoers. I'd be curious to see if restaurants located near or connected to movie theaters saw a spike in business since this movie came out. Lord knows I practically leapt out of my seat to stuff my face after sittin' through two hours of chocolate cakes and braised lamb and...crap, made myself hungry again.
6. Shorts- $6.6M
I commend you, Robert Rodriguez. You're one of my favorite directors, and the fact that you diversify your work with kiddie stuff like this and Spy Kids is a testament to your ability. Too bad nobody cares. Should've cut your losses with Sharkboy and Lava Girl, homie.
7. G Force- $4.21M/$107M
That's just...regrettable. That's a disturbing total. Public Enemies struggles to break $100M, but a movie about glorified rats? Not a problem at all.
8. Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince- $3.52M/$290M
Still trying to figure out what a half blood prince is.
9. The Ugly Truth- $2.85M/$82.9M
Ok, all you people who shelled out good money to see this mess because Gerard Butler was in it? I hope you'll do the same thing for Gamer in a couple weeks. Otherwise...you and I might have some issues to iron out.
10. Post Grad- $2.8M
I could probably sit and watch Alexis Bledel read through the damn phone book she's so cute. In fact, they should've made this movie nothing but her reading through the phone book. I'd have paid to see that long before I'd pay to see this crap, which looks like it fell off the back of the ABC Family delivery truck. No thank you. I can't believe this knocked (500) Days of Summer out of the Top 10. Shameful.
The highest per site average of the week went to the Renee Zellwegger 1950's screwball comedy, My One and Only. At only 4 locations, it brought in an estimated $60,700. Not too shabby.
