Thaindian News

By Abhiroop Mukherjee

Aug 24 (IBNS) Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino’s World War II actioner starring Brad Pitt, made a glorious debut over the weekend with an estimated $37.6 million in the box office.

The movie is being touted By some as a make-or-break film for the recently struggling Weinstein and Co., even though Universal is distributing the film internationally and will share evenly in any worldwide profit.

Hollywood Reporter said that Sony’s sci-fi thriller “District 9″ finished second after falling just 49% in its sophomore session to $18.9 million and a 10-day of $73.5 million.

The weekend’s other three wide openers bowed softly. Robert Rodriguez’s PG-rated family fantasy “Shorts” from Warner Bros. rung up $6.6 million for sixth place; Fox Searchlight’s comedy “Post Grad” registered $2.8 million in 10th, and Disney’s sports documentary “X Games 3D: The Movie” — slotted for one week only in 1,399 extra-dimensional venues — fetched just $800,000.

Among other second-frame holdovers, Warners’ literary adaptation “The Time Traveler’s Wife” fell a modest 46% to $10 million in fourth place for a $37.4 million, while further down the rankings Paramount Vantage’s comedy “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” slid 53% to $2.7 million and a $11.2 million. Disney’s “Ponyo” dipped 32% to $2.4 million with an $8.1 million, and Summit Entertainment’s youth musical “Bandslam” dropped 60% to $890,000 and a $4.5 million.

The weekend top 10 films collected $108 million, or 31% more than the top performers over the same frame last year, according to Nielsen EDI. That marked a third straight year-over-year weekend uptick.