Below are the top 12 weekend final numbers from the North American box office:

1. Inglourious Basterds - $38,054,676
2. District 9 - $18,213,546
3. G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra - $12,204,927
4. The Time Traveler's Wife - $9,742,427
5. Julie & Julia - $8,800,674
6. Shorts - $6,410,339
7. G-Force - $4,114,661
8. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - $3,478,149
9. The Ugly Truth - $2,774,174
10. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard - $2,710,194
11. Post Grad - $2,651,996
12. Ponyo - $2,425,644

Overall, the US Box Office was down 10.7% on last weekend's gross.

Quentin Tarantino's latest film INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS easily took out top spot this weekend with $38M, making for the director's biggest opening weekend in his career. Many see this as a return to form for Tarantino, living up to his penchant for dialogue and gory action. Made for around $70M, the film looks to be a winner and will likely earn well over the coming weeks.

DISTRICT 9 came tumbling back to Earth this weekend with a much humbler $18.2M. The film lost 51% of its audience this weekend, but it has earned a very healthy $72.8M domestically against a $30M budget. First-time director Neil Blomkamp has made a real splash here with his debut outing and is definitely a director to watch for in the future.

Robert Rodriguez, Tarantino's fellow filmmaking buddy, had a tougher return to the box office this weekend with his new kid flick SHORTS sputtering out before starting with a paltry $6.4M. This is a rare turkey for Rodriguez.

Returning films G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE and JULIE & JULIA all managed to register decent weekends with $12.2M, $9.7M and $8.8M respectively. All had small percentage drops in audience numbers. However, G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA is the only one of the three that will have to work hard to recoup its budget, having only earned $120M against a $175M budget.

The Top 12 at the US Box Office took in a total of $111,581,407 for the whole of the weekend 21-23 August 2009.