Loaded Couch Potatoes

Say, uh … remember last week, when I suggested that it might be a close battle between Inglourious Basterds and Shorts?

Oh, well.  String theory suggests that I was right somewhere.

(1)  Inglourious Basterds ($37.6 million, $11,881 per screen):  Setting a new record for last-half-of-August opening weekends, this one is honestly a bit of a surprise to me.  Even more surprising is the fact that it played well throughout the weekend, rather than just opening big on Friday and then dying off by Sunday.

My guess is that you can credit Brad Pitt with a lot of this success, and the trailers for much of the rest.  I would wager that a lot of people saw their first Tarantino movie this weekend, and it’ll be interesting to see what next weekend looks like for the film.  It has been greeted with a certain amount of vitriol by a large segment of the fanboy community, but it may be that the film is playing well for people it wasn’t necessarily intended for.

I’m going to predict a 60% dropoff, which is large but not catastrophic.  Either way, it looks like Tarantino has successfully recovered from the box-office disappointment of Grindhouse.

(2)  District 9 ($18.9 million, $6197 per screen, $73.4 million total):  Dropping 50% this weekend, that’s a much softer decline than the somewhat similar Cloverfield suffered in its second weekend.  It looks as if people are embracing this movie fairly warmly; good news for all concerned, especially fans of original, high-quality science fiction films.

(3)  G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($12.5 million, $3162 per screen, $120.5 million total):  Showing some signs of stability in its third weekend, the dumb-as-a-box-of-nail-clippings action flick has probably started to catch on as a family film.

(4)  The Time Traveler’s Wife ($10 million, $3355 per screen, $37.4 million total):  Down 46% this weekend, that’s a steeper drop than is common for romance films, and I think I know the reason why…

(5)  Julie & Julia ($9 million, $3654 per screen, $59.2 million total):  …Julie & Julia is finally showing some leg.  Dropping only 25% this weekend, the culinary-centric movie actually made more per screen than did The Time Traveler’s Wife.  Word of mouth seems to finally be getting around that Julie & Julia is a good time at the movie; I doubt it’s in time for the final gross to hit $100 million, but stranger things have happened.

(6)  Shorts ($6.6 million, $2126 per screen):  Debuting with a smaller per-screen average than the second weekend of Ponyo, Robert Rodriguez’s latest kidsploitation opus is a bona fide dud.  Robert, can you please cut this shit out now?  And by the way, thank you in advance for Machete.

(7)  G-Force ($4.2 million, $1642 per screen, $107.3 million total):  If were one of those hot True Blood vampires — not the faggy Twilight ones — I’d have bloody eye corners every time I had to write about this fucking movie.

(8)  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($3.5 million, $1816 per screen, $290.2 million total):  Continuing its solid run, can this movie squeak its way to $300 million?  It’s gonna be close.

(9)  The Ugly Truth ($2.8 million, $1446, $82.8 million total):  Good run, fine total, blah blah blah.

(10)  Post Grad ($2.8 million, $1429 per screen):  Not a good debut by any means.

Elsewhere on the chart:

(12)  Ponyo ($2.4 million, $2620 per screen, $8.1 million total):  Down 32% from last weekend, the Miyazaki import is doing fairly well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this helps him become a bigger name here in America; I suspect a lot of people have been exposed to his work for the first time.

Next weekend is an odd one, with two high-profile horror flicks debuting simultaneously: Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 and The Final Destination, which really ought to have been titled Final Destination 4 3D.

The marketing for The Final Destination has been pretty soft, but it’s still a well-known franchise, and the lure of 3D could work again.  Overall, though, I’d say the weekend probably belongs to Zombie.  Let’s say $25 million, with the possibility of a repeat at the top for the Basterds.