Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds has become his biggest opening film ever. It out grossed his previous top opener, Kill Bill Vol. 2, by more than $10 million. It is pretty amazing to think he hasn't had a bigger opener than this — even more amazing is that Pulp Fiction failed to crack $10 million, period! In any case, I have been hearing very good things about Tarantino's journey into World War II, but (surprisingly) have not yet seen it, an issue I hope to rectify in the near future. In any case, I am curious to hear your thoughts.
Slipping to second place with a 50% dip, District 9 pulled in over $18 million. The dip was not that large and not all that unexpected. Hopefully it will not plummet after this, it really is a great movie and one I hope to catch again on the big screen. This movie is firing on all cylinders, the effects and action are great, as are character and emotional development, quite the achievement for a debut feature.
Third place is held by GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. It suffered a moderate 45% drop, and the movie looks to be leveling off. This is another one I have seen, and it is a brain dead flick that worked. I know, I know, I should demand more, even from a summer blockbuster type movie adapted from a toy line. Somehow, this was entertaining and fun in spite of its utter lack of intelligence. It does what Transformers failed to do — embrace the cheese of the source and not take itself too seriously.
The Time Traveler's Wife and Julie & Julia each slide down a notch and continue to do solid business. I liked parts of the former and most of the latter, and both deliver experiences that should continue to do decent business in theaters before continuing to do so on DVD and Blu-ray.
A second new film arrives on the top ten list, landing in sixth place. Robert Rodriguez's Shorts did a moderate opening weekend, managing to pull down nearly $6.5 million. That sounds about right for the child-targeted fantasy, although it is also happens to be the lowest opening ever for a Rodriguez film, aside from El Mariachi, but that was a very small open.
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