Quentin Tarantino scored his biggest opening ever this weekend with Inglourious Basterds, which took the top spot with a stellar $37.6 million and helped propel the top 10 toward its biggest late-summer numbers in two years. Repeat contenders held up well too, with no film in the top 10 dropping more than 50 percent since last week. District 9 took the biggest fall, but still landed well at No. 2 with $18.9 million, putting it within easy reach of the $100 million mark. G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra continues to benefit from its ultra-wide release—nearly 4,000 theaters—taking No. 3 with $12.5 million.
The Time Traveler’s Wife performed reasonably well in its second week, falling one spot to No. 4 with $10.03 million, while Julie & Julia had the smallest decline, percentage-wise, dropping just 25 percent in its third week to No. 5 with $9 million.
Tarantino’s former collaborator, Robert Rodriguez, posted a much less impressive debut this week with the kiddie flick Shorts, which entered the charts at No. 6 with $6.6 million. A couple of more established family-friendly options followed close behind: G-Force spent its fifth weekend at No. 7 with $4.21 million, while Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince landed at No. 8 in its sixth week with $3.52 million. The weekend’s final new release, Post Grad, just barely cracked the top 10, landing at No. 10 with $2.8 million, just behind The Ugly Truth at No. 9 with $2.85 million.
More detailed numbers can be found at boxofficemojo.com.