The focus for this weekend has been all about the Weinsteins, their future and other unanswerable questions rehashed by the New York Times. But the little secret behind the opening of "Inglourious Basterds" on Friday is that it means plenty to its director, too.

When we interviewed QT in Cannes, he implied that he was helping out the Weinsteins at this crossroads of their careers, just as they helped him with "Pulp Fiction" back in the day. But Tarantino needs a big opening for himself.

Since "Kill Bill" hit a goldmine of $70 million in domestic boxoffice six years ago, the helmer has made less money with each successive picture, culminating in the underperformance of "Grindhouse" two years ago. Sure, that's only three pics ("Kill Bill, Vol. 2" came between them) but it's sobering when you consider his last bona fide hit before "Kill Bill" came back in '94 with "Pulp Fiction."

And the stakes are high for a director like Tarantino, who has until now spent most of his career in the relative cocoon of the Weinsteins. It's hard enough as it is for an auteur to get movies financed above a certain budget (and QT, with his penchant for effects, stars and big tableaus, is not making any $5 million indies). A string of underperformers doesn't help.

Tarantino is a director not afraid to put himself forward for his films, as his late-night appearances for this and his other films show. And he's enough of a household name that that means something. But there's a downside, since he's one of the few directors for whom a flop reflects on their public persona.

So what are the prospects for "Basterds"?

This weekend is actually a tough date for a movie that hopes to earn at least $20 million, as "Basterds" is gunning for. Last year, the identical slot proved a dead zone, with no movie topping $15 million ("House Bunny" got closest). Then again, the competition is much weaker compared to last year, when "Death Race" and several other wide openers competed for the end-of-summer dollar, which has some pegging expectations solidly in the $20-25m range.

There's also a Twitter effect to watch out for. The Weinsteins have done a deft job marketing a 2 1/2-hour movie with long stretches of talk, including German talk, as a high-voltage action movie. That, along with a cadre of QT devotees, some A-list support and the buzz among the art house set about Christoph Waltz (who'll be the big winner no matter what happens this weekend), should bring a strong start to the weekend.

But it could result in a drop as the weekend moves along (and in the second weekend), as some fans are thrown by a director stretching in ways they haven't seen before. With his new pic, QT views himself as a throwback to the directors of classic war movies like "The Dirty Dozen." But with the Twitter effect hitting other movies, he may want to have Judd Apatow on speed-dial just in case.