District 9, a low-budget picture with no stars and a first-time director, practically lapped the weekend box office field earning an estimated $37 million, while Hayao Miyazaki scored his biggest U.S. opening ever as Ponyo opened in 927 theaters and earned a respectable $3.5 million. 

 

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra dropped 59% in its second frame, which is not a bad showing for a heavily-promoted big budget action film these days.  The Hasbro-based film earned an estimated $22.5 million and brought its domestic cumulative to nearly $100 million, while Warner Bros./New Line’s female-centric The Time-Traveler’s Wife proved to be an excellent bit of counter-programming as it earned a solid $19.2 million and finished in third place.  Overall the weekend was up 15% from a year ago when the big-budget, star-studded comedy Tropic Thunder opened in support of the still potent The Dark Knight.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): August 14-16, 2009

Rank	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./Screen
1	District 9	$37,000,000	3,049	$12,135
2	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	$22,500,000	4,007	$5,615
3	The Time Traveler's Wife	$19,205,000	2,988	$6,427
4	Julie & Julia	$12,400,000	2,354	$5,268
5	G-Force	$6,908,000	3,065	$2,254
6	The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard	$5,350,000	1,838	$2,911
7	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	$5,155,000	2,771	$1,860
8	The Ugly Truth	$4,500,000	2,733	$1,647
9	Ponyo	$3,506,000	927	$3,782
10	(500) Days of Summer	$3,025,000	1,048	$2,886

District 9, which was produced by Peter Jackson, clearly benefited from a buzz-building screening at the San Diego Comic-Con, which proved to be the perfect launching pad for a wicked smart science fiction film set in South Africa where its apartheid-like themes gained additional resonance.  The audience for District 9 was overwhelmingly male (67%) with 57% over the age of 25.  While critical brickbats haven’t prevented hordes of fans from showing up for film such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe, the overwhelmingly positive notices for District 9 certainly helped this dark horse film, which was produced for just $30 million, fill the seats. 

 

Miyazaki’s Ponyo, which has already earned $187 million overseas, managed to debut at #9 with an estimated $3.5 million gleaned from a per theater average of $3,782.  While Ponyo's debut was small potatoes when compared with major studio U.S. animated features, it still represents the widest North American release and the biggest U.S. opening ever for the master Japanese animator.  After it won the Academy Award, Disney opened Miyazaki’s Spirited Away wide (711 theaters in March of 2003), but the film, which eventually took in $10 million in the U.S. (versus $274 million worldwide), only earned $1.7 million during its opening frame.  If Ponyo can keep its momentum, it has a good shot at becoming Miyazaki's biggest U.S. release ever.

 

Though it fell to #2 here, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra topped the overseas box office again, where the action film has now earned a solid $91.3 million, giving it a worldwide total of $190 million, which should insure that Paramount will opt for a sequel. 

 

The audience for The Time Traveler’s Wife, which is based on a book by Audrey Niffenegger, was 76% female, but it didn’t seem to slow down last week’s top female-oriented flick, Julie & Julia, which fell just 38% as it earned $12.4 million and finished a solid fourth.