Box Office - The Natsie-Killin' Bidness is a-Boomin'

Tarantino is off to a great start with Inglourious Basterds, which opened with $14.5 million on Friday. Considering that the film is only in 3,100 theaters, that puts it on pace for a very strong $35 - $38 million for the weekend. In terms of this summer, that's between the debuts for The Hangover and The Proposal, both of which went on to make over $250 million worldwide, and almost exactly where last's week's champ, District 9, wound up. It's a fairly surprising start, too, given QT's usual opening weekends. His best opening ever is Kill Bill Vol. 2 with $25 million; this film will outgross Grindhouse in one weekend, and possibly Jackie Brown, as well. The Brad Pitt thing helps, and the lack of competition and the good reviews certainly do, too. There is, however, what happens next. Now that people have seen it, will the word of mouth be strong enough to keep it going all weekend? Basterds is heavy on talk and light on action, so we'll see if that continues to go over with mainstream audiences. District 9 does not appear likely to have a great second weekend hold, which is a bit unexpected, even though there's a lot of shared audience between this film and Basterds. It will most likely drop to about $17 million after a $5.5 million Friday. Still, you're looking at $73 million after two weeks and a nearly definite $100 million domestic total, but it will lose over 50% of its opening weekend audience. Beyond that, there's nothing much to see. Julie & Julia continues to do well in spite of meager expectations, Harry Potter won't hit $300 million in the U.S., and G.I. Joe is looking at a finish line around $145 million or so. We'll recap the Inglourious weekend tomorrow.

Comments

[J]

Why won't Harry Ptter hit 300 mill domestic? It is making virtually the same amount as Order of the Phoenix and that went on the gross 16mill more after its 38th day of release. 16mill more for Half Blood Prince would put it over 300mill. Itactually only need about 12.3mill more.

[Will]

The good people at Harkins Tempe Marketplace were a little overwhelmed by the Basterds traffic Friday night, and, no doubt, regretting that they didn't offer screenings on the Cine Capri, where the lines for D-9 were much, much smaller.

[Get The Big Picture]

They did, however, put The Hangover there on opening weekend instead of Land of the Lost.