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."

Quentin Tarantino's war movie tops box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Director Quentin Tarantino scored the best opening of his colorful career with his World War Two thriller "Inglourious Basterds," which topped the weekend box office in North America after selling $37.6 million worth of tickets, its distributor said on Sunday.

The film stars Brad Pitt as the leader of a group of Jewish-Americans who carry out violent wartime acts of retribution across Europe. Pundits had forecast an opening in the $25 million range.

The film, which reportedly cost $70 million to make, marks a much-needed salve for the struggling independent studio Weinstein Co., which co-financed it with international distributor Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein released Tarantino's 1992 smash "Pulp Fiction" when they headed up Miramax Films. Since launching their new firm in 2005, the Weinsteins have failed to make much of an impact at the box office or the Academy Awards.

Tarantino's previous best opening was the $25.1 million start for "Kill Bill Vol. 2" in 2004. The film finished with $66.2 million in the United States and Canada. "Pulp Fiction" remains his biggest film overall with a domestic haul of $107 million. Data are not adjusted for ticket price inflation.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Doina Chiacu)