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SUNDAY AM: Now that official numbers are in, controversial Inglourious Basterds opened with $14.3M Friday, but then dropped -10% Saturday to $12.9M from 3,165 theaters. So, with a Sunday estimate of $10.3M, that’s a bigger than expected $37.6M first weekend for director Quentin Tarantino. (The most moolah anybody projected for Friday-Sunday had been $30M.) “The Weinsteins live to fight another day,” quipped one rival studio exec about the World War II film on which beleaguered The Weinstein Company had hung its financial future (along with next weekend’s reboot sequel, Halloween 2). But the producers aren’t out of the weeds, even though Basterds scored Tarantino his best North American opening since the $25.1 million earned by Kill Bill Vol 2. And eased Harvey Weinstein’s fears of another Grindhouse-like flop. Expected to dominate on both coasts, the “Hard R”-rated pic was predicted to play much softer in the middle of the country. Still, after all that buzz — a lot of it awful – at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it’s a miracle the movie didn’t tank. Especially since Tarantino changed up the film but didn’t cut its 2-hour, 32-minute, running time, which is now a minute longer. Universal has both foreign theatrical distribution, and international and domestic home video, while Weinstein is self-distributing in North America and also has pay TV. There’s a single-pot worldwide deal split 50/50.
But there was stiff competition for male moviegoers from the Peter Jackson indieprod District 9, a Sony pick-up, which was down a larger-than-expected 60% from its No. 1 debut last Friday. The alien apartheid pic made $5.5M Friday and $7.3M Saturday (+31%) from 3,050 venues and $18.9M for its 2nd weekend. That’s a very respectable -49% drop from last weekend, and new $73.4 cume, based on the good watercooler/Twitter word-of-mouth that kept weekday numbers averaging a strong $4M. (Rest of Top 10 below…)
So it was Nazis vs Aliens at the box office. In terms of negative cost, the two pics are $72M vs $30M. But I’ve learned that while District 9 only has a small gross participation for Peter Jackson and nobody else associated with the film, Inglourious Basterds has a big gross participation for both Tarantino and star Brad Pitt. Film financing circles tell me the film has to make more than $60M, and others say it’s $80M, in North America in order to earn out. But they also expect a 70% drop for Inglourious Basterds next weekend because most college campuses around the country will be back in session — and that’s bad for biz. Which is why The Weinstein Company’s release of Halloween 2 that weekend is so inexplicable.
Overseas, the two pics are battling, too. Inglorious Basterds is the No. 1 movie overseas. The Weinstein/Universal co-production internationally grossed an estimated $27.5M at 2,630 dates in 22 territories – making it the biggest international weekend for a Quentin Tarantino film. It broke QT records in several markets including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Hong Kong. And there are still 42 territories to open over the next few months.
Lest we forget amid all the hype and secrecy of yesterday’s trailer debut, it’s Avatar Day with 20th Century Fox screening 16 minutes from the film in 101 IMAX theaters Friday night in the U.S., and another 238 theaters — including 28 IMAX screens – abroad. Free tickets were given out via an online lottery.
Meanwhile, there were a slew of other pics opening this weekend: small, smaller, and arthouse:
Fox Atomic leftover Post Grad, a little comedy starring Alexis Bledel in a seeming reprisal of her Gilmore Girl role (what happened to the Sin City vixen?),opened in 1,958 theaters. Warner Bros sent family fare Shorts from Robert Rodriguez into 3,105 dates with little fanfare even though the kids needed something fresh. Disney debuted the documentary X Games 3D The Movie in 1,399 runs. Foreign pic Casi Divas from Maya Entertainment had 22 runs. IFC sent the crime drama Five Minutes Of Heaven starring Taken‘s Liam Neeson into a single theater. Still another Paramount Vantage leftover, The Marc Pease Experience, is a laffer starring Jason Schwartzman and Ben Stiller dumped with 10 plays and no publicity. And Magnolia took World’s Greatest Dad, a comedy starring Robin Williams, into 12 theaters.
Period piece My One And Only scored an average $15,000 per screen if Sunday holds up in 4 NY/LA dates. But how did one-time Oscar-winner Renee Zellweger end up in a pic that couldn’t receive a decent release — even though reviews were 70% positive according to Rotten Tomatoes, especially among top critics? I’m told the movie was made and financed independently by businessman/investor Norton Herrick, whose Hair on Broadway won a Tony but was new to the film biz.
Herrick took My One And Only to the Berlin film festival, where it received positive trade reviews as well as a special mention from the independent jury. But no American studio stepped up to acquire the picture. (Not so surprising considering how loathe studios are to spend $30+M marketing money on pickups, especially considering that Zellweger has been in a slew of loser pics of late and lost her mojo with audiences.)
So Herrick decided to finance the distribution of the film himself. He hired Freestyle Releasing, which had distributed The Illusionist and Bottle Shock, among other pics, and assembled a marketing team. Their advice was to start exclusive through a limited opening, then widen over Labor Day weekend to 15 markets. So my One And Only opened as Inglourious Basterds counter-programming in upscale (but not arthouse) venues. Still, I’m shocked that Zellweger’s career has come to this.
Here’s the TOP 10:
1. Inglourious Basterds (TWC/Uni) NEW [3,165], $37.6M Wkd
2. District 9 (Sony) Week 2 [3,050], $18.9M Wkd, Cume $73.4M
3. GI Joe (Paramount) Week 3 [3,953], $12.5M Wkd, Cume $120.5M
4. Time Traveler’s Wife (NL/WB) Week 2 [2,988], $10M Wkd, Cume $37.4M
5. Julie & Julia (Sony) Week 3 [2,463], $9M Wkd, Cume $59.2M
6. Shorts (WB) NEW [3,105], $6.6M Wkd
7. G-Force (Disney) Week 5 [2,561], $4.2M Wkd
8. Harry Potter/Half Prince (WB) Week 6 [1,971], $3.5M Wkd, Cume $290.2M
9. Ugly Truth (Sony) Week 5 [1,936], $2.8M Wkd, Cume $82.6M
10. Post Grad (Fox) NEW [1,959], $2.8M Wkd
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Talk about missed opportunities. Tarantino’s film had some great scenes and tremendous performance (Christophe Waltz could be up for an Oscar) but the film was a brain dead B-movie revenge fantasy that went for being cool over cohesive.
It was two movies thrown together with the character development and depth removed and the violence left in. So many opportunities for a truly great film in there but it just ended up being a big, dump, self-indulgent homage.
I’m not a Quentin fanboy by any means but I absolutely loved Basterds. He succeeded admirably at turning the war picture on its head. For the first time since Pulp Fiction, his extended dialogue scenes have that tractor beam-like quality where you get pulled in by the linguistic tapestry he weaves. There’s so many memorable characters and the casting for every part feels pitch-perfect. The film is a reaffirmation of how talented its director is. It’s almost sickening how good he is as methodically constructing verbality. Some of the younger people in my showing seemed restless at times whenever Pitt or Walz weren’t onscreen but at the end we literally all applauded. Talk about a crowd-pleasing finale.
Also, I TOLDJA!!! last week that D-9 would have a bare-minimum dropoff of 60% and my foresight has been vindicated. I realized immediately after seeing it that the word on the street among mainstream audiences would be unenthusiastic, and the only way for box office legs to be sustained would be if the nerds and bloggers who raved went L. Ron Hubbard on the bit by paying for hundreds of tickets individually. It was a neat little movie with a great marketing campaign, but if you start to think even a little about some of the logic gaffes or plotholes within the story, it makes the aura of superlative praise surrounding it seem like a lot of hot air.
Here’s my next dropoff prediction: Basterds will only dip by 35% in week 2, half of what’s projected above. If I’m right, I’ll gloat again next week using my real name. If I’m wrong, I’ll conveniently forget I ever posted this.
Why the hell is B.J. Novak in this movie? He’s terrible. Aside from that, brilliant movie.
SHORTS IS MRC’S SECOND BOMB THIS YEAR. THE BOX AND INVENTION OF LYING WILL FLOP TOO. ANY FILMMAKER WHO MAKES A MOVIE THERE IS DOOMED TO FAIL MISERABLY.
District 9 is awesome. District 9 is the future. Tarantino is the past.
Have to say that I agree with “Kevin” above. It was a disappointment, and no one applauded today at the half full AMC on 42nd St.
the film is so indulgent, there is a real innate talent in Tarrantino but he wastes far too much of it. He is the cinematic equivalent of a grinning jerk holding his weenie and wagging it in front of everybody. Thanks but no thanks. Lots of interesting set ups and set pieces but no real thread and it is far too long for a movie with little on its mind but revisionist fantasy.
It really is too bad because he knows were to put a camera and it is very nice visually. If he ever matures emotionally and intellectually he might surprise me but at this rate it doesn’t look to be anytime soon.
Saw it in Burbank last night. Theater we nearly full. Audience was about half men/half women. Lots of laughter, lots of applause. Cheers at the end.
As for casting: Roth didn’t bug me. But MIKE MYERS? WTF? Again, Myers is just an annoying combo of cartoonish make-up, fake teeth and moronic expressions as he tongued the scenery. That scene COMPLETELY took me out of the this nearly perfect movie. Other than that misstep, it was a great ride.
Im sorry folks… I thought the movie was a big disappointment. Nothing like Kill Bill… those movies were awesome.. this one is lame.
Inglorious Basterds is an outstanding Tarantino film. More than half the film is in German subtitles and the dialogue is riveting i.e. The Frenchman’s farmhouse, the basement of the Parisian niteclub, etc. The film is nearly perfect. I give it Four Stars. Brad Pitt is outstanding. The Gestapo agent is superb. I do think the “basterds” characters could have been fleshed out a little bit more. The “Jewish Bear” scene is something to behold.
Basterds was a lot of fun. No Pulp Fiction, but then what movie is… Any reviewer that panned it loses a lot of cred with me. At the least, QT is out there taking chances, doing something different.
YAY!!! Another movie where we get to see Brad Pitt fall out of character!!! What’s in the box?!?!
I’m sure Basterds is good–although Death Proof was the
most self-stroking POS I’ve ever seen. But one question: history proves there are plenty of great (and real) Nazi hunting stories so why make up a Jewish superhero tale?
YES! Another film where we get to see Pitt fall out of character! What’s in the box?!?!
Very cool that at least it’s got some discussion going. Most films lately are just “It was fun” and off to another subject. It’s great to have an entertaining film that gets people talking too.
It will be interesting to see if Quentin Tarantino saves Harvey’s butt one more time.
Redux and correction:
WWII has been over for two-thirds of a century. Give us a break and stop with the “Nazzi” films.
Of course Hollywood need villains but give us a break. There have been plenty of potential bad guys over the past century.
I wouldn’t pay to see one of those passe flicks for free.
Could someone explain the point of “Inglorious Bastards”? It looks to me to be just another ultral violent gore fest for teenage boys combined with wishful thinking. It would have been great if this really happened and the world was saved from the horrors of WWII, but it didn’t.
So, is it just a well done fantasy romp? What is it?
I’m sure Basterds is good–although Death Proof was the
most self-stroking POS I’ve ever seen. But one question: history proves there are plenty of great (and real) Nazi hunting stories during and after WWII, so why make up a Jewish superhero tale?
Hollywood tradition always puts a Jewish grunt in the middle of the action in nearly every WWII movie (despite a dearth of Jewish fighting men and women as compared to other ethnic groups). It’s not PC to say that, I realize, just accurate. Just wondering why QT turned it into what Eli Roth has called Kosher Porn. Just curious.
The flim rocks. It’s does seem to be the thing to do to bash TWC, but I hope them well with this. I had my doubts, but QT nailed it. IMDB does not have Christophe Waltz lined up for anything else…hope that does not last long!
I thought the movie was overly long… I enjoyed my two beers and pizza just as much as I did the flick. It was so heavily subtitled that it made for a tiring read after the novelty wore off. I don’t think that the director struck the right balance between action and dialog-plot; the latter was far more encumbering than the former. When a movie gets too “wordy” the overall project suffers.
I’m Jewish and I hate everything about this movie. I love World War II movies but this movie is disgusting in its sadistic graphic brutality. Quentin and Eli Roth are sadists they love bloody violence they get off on it. There’s no reason for any of that shit in this movie and I simply won’t see it I won’t waste my money or my time with the obnoxious Tarantino. Nobody asked him to make a Jewish revenge porn movie. He has made Jews look like Zionazis in this movie. Disgraceful. I’m not alone either here’s article from Showbiz Date:
JEWISH CRITICS CHIME IN ON INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Quentin Tarrantino’s Inglourious Basterds may be getting mixed reviews from leading U.S. critics; it is getting scathing reviews from the Jewish press. The national Jewish Daily Forward calls it “Jewish revenge porn.” In Connecticut’s Jewish Ledger, Michael Fox writes that since the film doesn’t pretend to be historically accurate, “there’s no percentage in railing against [it] as blathering, self-indulgent drivel.” Nevertheless, he writes, Tarantino’s plot amounts to “pages and pages and pages of amusingly pointless dialogue.” He concludes, “Tarantino’s riff on Nazis and Jews may amuse and satisfy less mature audiences. For those with a deeper and fuller understanding of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, particularly one gleaned from sources other than action movies, it is shockingly superficial.” The movie features scenes in which the “good guys” scalp German soldiers, beat them to death with baseball bats for refusing to reveal the location of comrades, carve swastikas into the foreheads of those who do cooperate, and commit suicide bombings. Jonathan Foreman in Britain’s Jewish Chronicle comments, “There is something about the idea of inspiring holy terror by mutilation, decapitations, etc. that inevitably evokes today’s real-life masters of cruelty and demoralization by atrocity, al-Qaeda.”
Inglorious was such a let down. What happened QT? You almost had a classic on your hands.
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I think Brad Pitt is, as per usual, the worst part of the film. His reading lines as himself (and getting a crapload of money for it) mode gets really old.
I saw this movie today. I was dissapointed. I expected more from Mr. Tarantino. The plot is ridiculous beyond measure. The Nazi themes tried too hard to jump the shark and the dialogue was frequently muddled and disorganized. To their credit, most of the actors made lemonade out of this lemon. The acting was excellent. And the sets, costumes and scenery were immaculate. The trademark Tarantino shootout scenes were spectacular as always. But you have to muddle through the rest of the movie to get to them. Over all. A waste of time and money. I couldn’t wait till it was over. Do yourself a favor and wait till it hits blockbuster on DVD.
I always hear this comment that the US didn’t get into the war until ‘after Pearl Harbor.’ And? Your point is? Maybe there should be a movie called ‘Ungrateful Basterds.’
I thought the Mike Myers scene was really well done, and really well written. That scene had to be in there. That scene is in every “man on a mission” film and it’s always the most boring or the first to be forgotten. But not with Myers. TCM played “A Bridge Too Far” last night and Dirk Bogarde (one of my favorite actors) did the same scene, except he showed the map to Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, and Ryan O’Neal. Even with all that talent, it’s the most boring and easily forgotten scene in the film. Having Myers do what he does best made this scene memorable and even has some here talking about it.
If you want to complain about performances, look no further than the hack Eli Roth. Great movie, so great, it makes up for having Roth play second to Pitt in the titular gang.
And Pitt was great. That “Sling Blade” face he makes through half the film is brilliant. He should get an Oscar nod.