Tyro director Quentin Tarantino scored his biggest opening ever with Inglourious Basterds, which earned an estimated $37.6 million, while the sleeper hit, District 9, which appeals to the same older male demographic, fell only 49% in its second frame.  With Basterds strong debut and the fact that none of the holdovers in the top ten declined by more than 50%, the box office surged some 26% ahead of the same weekend last year.  After a weak July, Hollywood has posted three straight strong weekends in August.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): August 21-23

Inglourious Basterds, which reportedly cost some $70 million to produce, is a crucial film for the survival of the independent Weinstein Company, which has already announced plans to turn the World War II revenge fantasy into a franchise with both a prequel and a sequel.  The audience for Basterds was 58% male, with 70% of the male audience over 25.

Like the wicked smart science fiction film District 9, Paramount’s much pricier G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra demonstrated some “legs” at the box office with just a 44% decline as it ran its 17-day total to over $120 million. 

Movies that appeal to female viewers demonstrated some staying power as well.  Warner Bros.’ The Time Traveler’s Wife dropped a modest 46% in its second weekend and narrowly beat out Sony’s Julie and Julia, which fell just 26% in its third frame and has already earned nearly $60 million.

While Basterds took the box office by storm, three other new films were pretty much DOA.  Robert Rodriguez’s kidcentric Shorts fared the best out of the unlucky trio, earning some $6 million and finishing in 6th place.  But its debut was a far cry from that of Rodriguez’s Spy Kids, which earned $26.5 million in 2001.  Fox’s Post Grad debuted in 10th place and earned just $2.8 million from nearly 2000 theaters, but X Games 3D: The Movie, Disney’s attempt to lure a young audience with a combination of 3D and over-hyped “extreme sports” TV fare, fared the worst, managing only a pathetic $572 per theater average from 1,399 venues, proving that 3D alone is not enough to insure success.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo declined only 32.3% in its second frame as it pushed its earnings to over $8 million.  While Ponyo slipped out of the top ten to number twelve, it is on track to top Spirited Away’s $10 million take and become the anime maestro’s biggest hit in North America.

2009’s biggest hit so far, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, earned less than a million dollars in its ninth week of release, but it nevertheless brought its cumulative to $398.4 million, while Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince remained in the top ten during its sixth frame by bringing in $3.5 million and running its domestic total to $290 million.