It's not just one of the most anticipated movies released this summer, but District 9 may also turn out to be one of the most profitable, having made almost half of its budget back within its first day of release.
Neill Blomkamp's movie about alien refugees in South Africa took in an impressive $14.2 million on Friday, just under half of its $30 million budget, and enough to make it the most successful movie of the day, with The Time-Traveler's Wife taking second place and GI Joe falling to third (and down 68% compared with the Friday of the week before, suggesting that there's not a lot of gas left in the Joe engine longterm).
With a one-day total like that, it's almost impossible that D9 will have earned back its entire budget by the end of this weekend, if it's not done so already (Saturday's box office estimates haven't been released yet).
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter estimates that the movie will gross $37 million this weekend.
'District 9' easily tops box office [Variety]