‘District 9′ Lands on Top

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 16th, 2009

Low budget science fiction flick District 9 easily hovered over the competition at this weekend’s box office, grabbing an estimated $37 million.

It’s an impressive opening for director Neill Blomkamp’s first feature, a movie without any stars, and against four other new releases.  The independent pic was developed under the producer wing of Peter Jackson and later acquired the marketing strength of Sony.  The well-received movie (playing in 3,049 locations) cost only $30 million to make, so the rest is likely being put aside for an unconfirmed sequel.

64% of the audience was male, according to exit polls, and Twitter messages that read, “It’s a total sausage fest in here.”

Blomkamp originally teamed with Jackson for an adaptation of Microsoft’s Halo video game property, but when the project fell through the South African director was given the go ahead to turn his short film, “Alive in Joberg” into a full-length film.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra fell 68% from last Friday, but rebounded on Saturday to claim second place.  Movies for kids typically rally on Saturdays and this was no exception.  The $175 million toy movie made an estimated $22.5 million (59% drop), bringing the total just under $100M.

The $40M Rachel McAdams/Eric Bana novel adaptation The Time Traveler’s Wife made $19.2 million.  That makes three movies for Bana this summer.  Getting a little tired of him…

Jeremy Piven played his character from “Entourage” on screen in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.  As much as it tried to ride the coattails of The Hangover, it sold just $5.4 million.  I’m not sure what’s more pathetic, that number or when Piven was on WWE’s “Raw” promoting this thing.

Japanese import Ponyo picked up $3.5 million in only 927 theaters and 95% positive reviews.  Director Hayao Miyazak (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) worked with Disney’s John Lasseter to redub the anime in English for American children.

Summit Entertainment’s Bandslam was the fifth new movie this weekend and it was a disaster.  The studio’s attempt to siphon it’s own tween audience with a trailer for The Twilight Saga: New Moon was a failure.  I guess someone forgot about YouTube.  Bandslam made less than a million that Friday and a $2.3 million 3-day puts it in 13th place.

3-Day U.S. weekend estimates:
1. District 9 $37 million
2. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra $22.5 million
3. The Time Traveler’s Wife $19.2 million
4. Julie & Julia $12.4 million
5. G-Force $6.9 million
6. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard $5.4 million
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince $5.2 million
8. The Ugly Truth $4.5 million
9. Ponyo $3.5 million
10. (500) Days of Summer $3.0 million