DISNEY - TARANTINO WINS THE WAR

TARANTINO WINS THE WAR

Inglourious Basterds blitzed the box office over the weekend, taking in $38.1 million, an exceptional amount for the second half of August, normally regarded as one of the quietest periods of the year. It was also the best opening for director Quentin Tarantino, surpassing his previous best, Kill Bill Vol. 2 ($25.1 million) by 52 percent. Other new films, however, had disappointing ticket sales. Robert Rodriguez's family film Shorts debuted with $6.4 million. Post Grad got a failing grade with $2.7 million, while X Games 3D crashed with just $837,215. Last weekend's box-office winner, District 9 , dropped 51 percent to $18.2 million. G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra fell 45 percent in its third week to $12.2 million, bringing its domestic tally to $120.2 million. The Time Traveler's Wife slid 48 percent to $9.7 million, bringing its total to $37.2 million after two weeks. For the studios as a whole, revenue for the summer stands a tad below $4 billion, up 5 percent over last year's at this time. Much of that increase has been generated by higher ticket prices in general and premium pricing for 3D movies in particular. Admissions are actually down nearly 4 percent from last summer (but are up 2.5 percent for the year).

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date) 1. Inglourious Basterds, Weinstein Co. $38,054,676, (New); 2. District 9, Sony/Tri-star, $18,213,546, 2 Wks. ($72,804,317); 3. G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra, Paramount, $12,204,927, 3 Wks. ($120,235,874); 4. The Time Traveler's Wife, Warner Bros., $9,742,427, 2 Wks. ($37,165,676); 5. Julie & Julia, Sony, $8,800,674, 2 Wks. ($59,088,965); 6. Shorts, Warner Bros., $6,410,339, (New); 7. G-Force, Disney, $4,114,661, 5 Wks. ($107,224,616); 8. Harry Potterand the Half-Blood Prince, Warner Bros., $3,478,149, 6 Wks. ($290,238,524); 9. The Ugly Truth, Sony, $2,774,174, 5 Wks. ($82,811,624); 10. The Goods Live Hard, Sell Hard, Paramount Vantage, $2,710,194, 2 Wks. ($11,247,625).

25/08/2009