By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Natzi Schmooks
The alphabetically/historically challenged Inglourious Basterds quashed the Hun with an estimated $38.4 million to lead weekend movie going. The session’s other wide and limited releases were grappling with considerably more downbeat returns. The family targeted Shorts was sixth in the lineup with $6.5 million and the youthful romance Post Grad just tagged position 10 on a $2.7 million gross. And even with its 3D inducement X Games: The Movie trailed with $780,000.
Best of the limited and exclusives was the rom-com My One and Only with just shy of $50,000 at four venues and there were OK results for a spectrum of pictures from the non-fiction Art & Copy to Oscar-nominated political thriller The Baader-Meinhof Complex. The Latino audience however failed to respond to Casi Divas with its $25,700 opening at 22 haciendas.
Overall business clocked in at roughly $128 million for an 11% abatement from last weekend but a sizeable boost from end of summer 2008.
Considerable attention was focused on Basterds in light of on-going financial woes at the Weinstein Co. as well as a mixed bag of critical blowback from its Cannes premiere. Rumors of a significant re-edit swirled but the film’s theatrical version turned out to be no more than tweaking. It was expected to do about $30 million opening weekend and obviously topped expectations domestically and added an estimated $28 million in its first international exposures.
Based on its opening strength and mid-week business some felt last week’s chart topper District 9might weigh in with just a 33% decline and provide Basterds with a weekend photo finish. But the film fell by a more predictable 51% along with other sophomore titles including The Time Traveler’s Wifeand The Goods.
Late August has historically been a favorite dumping ground for the majors and it would be hard to argue that Shorts, Post Grad and X Games’s positioning didn’t have a slathering of “let’s get a little bit of summer playtime and defray our losses.” The latter sentiment is about as upbeat as the exercise gets.
Weekend sales expanded 23% from last year when debuts of The House Bunny (a surprisingly commercially resilient movie) and Death Race opened respectively to $14.5 million and $12.6 million but Tropic Thunder’s 2nd weekend generated $16.3 million.
As Labor Day looms the commercial salve may rightly be that summer appears to have held onto its audience. In these trying economic times it’s a bit presumptuous to be holding out for buoyant expansion.
Weekend Estimates: August 21-23, 2009
| Title | Distributor | Gross (averag | % change | Theaters | Cume |
| Inglourious Basterds | Weinstein Co. | 38.4 (12,120) | – | 3165 | 38.4 |
| District 9 | Sony | 18.1 (5,940) | -51% | 3050 | 72.7 |
| G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra | Par | 12.0 (3,030) | -46% | 3953 | 120 |
| The Time Traveler’s Wife | WB | 9.9 (3,300) | -47% | 2988 | 37.3 |
| Julie & Julia | Sony | 8.7 (3,710) | -28% | 2354 | 59 |
| Shorts | WB | 6.5 (2,110) | – | 3105 | 6.5 |
| G-Force | BV | 4.2 (1,650) | -39% | 2561 | 107.3 |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | WB | 3.6 (1,860) | -30% | 1936 | 290.4 |
| The Ugly Truth | Sony | 2.7 (1,350) | -40% | 1971 | 82.7 |
| Post Grad | Fox Searchlight | 2.7 (1,390) | – | 1958 | 2.7 |
| The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard | Par Vantage | 2.6 (1,390) | -54% | 1849 | 11.1 |
| Ponyo | BV | 2.4 (2,620) | -32% | 927 | 8.1 |
| (500) Days of Summer | Fox Searchlight | 2.3 (2,370) | -21% | 988 | 22.1 |
| The Hangover | WB | 1.5 (1,750) | -26% | 848 | 268.3 |
| A Perfect Getaway | Uni/Alliance | 1.1 (820) | -62% | 1322 | 14.2 |
| Funny People | Uni | .91 (980) | -70% | 932 | 50.5 |
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Par | .89 (1,200) | -45% | 740 | 398.4 |
| Bandslam | Summit | .83 (390) | -63% | 2121 | 4.4 |
| The Proposal | BV | .80 (1,250) | -39% | 642 | 159.2 |
| X Games 3D | BV | .78 (560) | – | 1399 | 0.78 |
| Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | Fox | .76 (1,460) | -40% | 559 | 192.4 |
| Orphan | WB | .75 (1,140) | -52% | 655 | 39.9 |
| Aliens in the Attic | Fox | .68 (820) | -53% | 830 | 22.2 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | – | $123.10 | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Year) | – | 23% | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Week) | – | -11% | – | – | – |
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| The Hurt Locker | Summit | .37 (980) | -42% | 379 | 11.1 |
| Adam | Searchlight | .24 (2,550) | 20% | 95 | 0.88 |
| In the Loop | IFC | .22 (2,470) | -1% | 88 | 1.6 |
| Paper Heart | Overture | .13 (1,850) | -27% | 68 | 0.76 |
| Cold Souls | IDP | .12 (2,340) | 13% | 53 | 0.33 |
| My One and Only | FreeStyle | 49,800 (12,450) | – | 4 | 0.05 |
| Casi Divas | Maya | 25,700 (1,170) | – | 22 | 0.03 |
| Art & Copy | 7th Art | 18,100 (6,030) | – | 3 | 0.02 |
| Baader-Meinhof Complex | Vitagraph | 16,300 (8,150) | – | 2 | 0.02 |
| The Headless Woman | Strand | 14,300 (14,300) | – | 1 | 0.01 |
| Five Minutes of Heaven | IFC | 4,920 (4,920) | – | 1 | 0.01 |
| World’s Greatest Dad | Magnolia | 4,200 (4,200) | – | 1 | 0.01 |
| The Marc Pease Experience | Par Vantage | 2,810 (280) | – | 10 | 0.01 |
Domestic Market Share: To August 13, 2009
| Distributor (releases) | Gross | Mrkt Share |
| Warner Bros. (23) | 1389.1 | 20.40% |
| Paramount (13) | 1252.4 | 18.40% |
| Fox (13) | 899.4 | 13.20% |
| Buena Vista (13) | 846.7 | 12.40% |
| Sony (15) | 728.4 | 10.70% |
| Universal (16) | 665.5 | 9.70% |
| Lions Gate (7) | 237.4 | 3.50% |
| Fox Searchlight (8) | 209.7 | 3.10% |
| Summit (7) | 157.2 | 2.30% |
| Focus (6) | 105.1 | 1.50% |
| Paramount Vantage (2) | 52.4 | 0.80% |
| MGM (3) | 42.3 | 0.60% |
| Miramax (5) | 41.3 | 0.60% |
| Weinstein Co. (6) | 34.5 | 0.50% |
| Other * (194) | 154.6 | 2.30% |
| * none greater than 0.4% | 6816 | 100.00% |
