Weekend Box Office:

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 - $12.5 million
5) G-Force - $6.9 million
6) The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard - $5.3 million
7) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - $5.1 million
8) The Ugly Truth - $4.5 million
9) Ponyo - $3.5 million
10) (500) Days of Summer - $3.02 million

With an amazing critical reception at its back, the humans and non-humans of District 9 ran roughshod over its box office competitors this week, taking in an estimated $37 million in its first weekend of release. Director Neill Blomkamp's $30 million film debut has already made its budget back in the first three days and it will be interesting to see if the film drops off much in its second weekend, with such great word-of-mouth and critical praise.

Last weekend's big winner had a pretty big drop-off in its second week in theaters. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra took second place with an estimated $22.5 million, a 58.9% drop from last weekend's $56.2 million take. The Time Traveler's Wife, the film adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling book, did solid biz in third place with $19.2 million, but the rest of the newcomers this week didn't fare that well at all.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard came in sixth place with $5.3 million, but this R-rated comedy was only given a modest rollout of 1,838 theaters. The lauded animator Hayao Miyazaki's new film Ponyo took ninth place with just $3.5 million, although it was only screening in 927 theaters. Both films still managed to outdo the teeny-bopper flick Bandslam, which took 13th place with $2.2 million from 2,121 theaters for a dismal per-screen average of $1,061. A new documentary made some noise in limited release, though, with It Might Get Loud taking in $101,000 from just 7 theaters, for an impressive $14,429 per-screen average.

Next week brings us Quentin Tarantino's World War II masterpiece Inglourious Basterds along with Robert Rodriguez's kids film Shorts and Alexis Bleidel's Post Grad in wide release. Be sure to stop by next week to see how District 9 fares against this diverse competition.

District 9 was released August 14th, 2009 and stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt, Sylvaine Strike, Elizabeth Mkandawie, John Sumner, William Allen Young, Greg Melvill-Smith. The film is directed by Neill Blomkamp.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was released August 7th, 2009 and stars Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Byung-hun Lee, Sienna Miller, Rachel Nichols, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce. The film is directed by Stephen Sommers.

The Time Traveler's Wife was released August 14th, 2009 and stars Michelle Nolden, Alex Ferris, Arliss Howard, Eric Bana, Katherine Trowell, Bart Bedford, Esther Jun, Matt Birman. The film is directed by Robert Schwentke.

Julie & Julia was released August 7th, 2009 and stars Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond, Helen Carey, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jane Lynch. The film is directed by Nora Ephron.

G-Force was released July 24th, 2009 and stars Bill Nighy, Sam Rockwell, Will Arnett, Jon Favreau, Zach Galifianakis, Nicolas Cage, Kelli Garner, Penélope Cruz. The film is directed by Hoyt Yeatman.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard was released August 14th, 2009 and stars Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, Ed Helms, Jordana Spiro, Tony Hale. The film is directed by Neal Brennan.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released July 15th, 2009 and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Dave Legeno, Elarica Gallacher, Jim Broadbent, Geraldine Somerville, Bonnie Wright, Julie Walters. The film is directed by David Yates.

The Ugly Truth was released July 24th, 2009 and stars Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Bree Turner, Eric Winter, Nick Searcy, Jesse D. Goins, Cheryl Hines, John Michael Higgins. The film is directed by Robert Luketic.

Ponyo was released August 14th, 2009 and stars Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Jôji Tokoro, Tomoko Yamaguchi, Yûki Amami, Kazushige Nagashima, Akiko Yano, Shinichi Hatori. The film is directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

(500) Days of Summer was released July 17th, 2009 and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend, Chloe Moretz, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Gregg, Patricia Belcher, Rachel Boston. The film is directed by Marc Webb.