Tarantino, Pitt's 'Basterds' earns glorious $37.6M

LOS ANGELES – Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino have landed their history lesson on World War II at the top of the box office.

Their war epic "Inglourious Basterds" took in $37.6 million over its first weekend to continue a late-summer revenue boost for Hollywood.

The haul for "Inglourious Basterds" was more than twice the receipts for the No. 1 movie over the same weekend last year, "Tropic Thunder."

Hollywood's busy season had been sliding for a month compared to last year, when the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" dominated the second half of summer.

But this was the second-straight weekend that revenues rose, with "Inglourious Basterds" following a strong debut a week earlier from the sci-fi thriller "District 9."