US Weekend box office report: another Final Destination weekend

Movie studios love a long holiday weekend. Given that this weekend was Labor Day, the studios were ready to rake in the cash that comes with a three-day weekend of moviegoing. Unfortunately for some folks, the cash that came rolling in went to movies that have already been out for a few weeks.

Repeating as weekend champion for the second week in a row is The Final Destination. The film took in another $15.45 million, narrowly holding the top spot over Quentin Tarantino's most successful non-Pulp Fiction movie, Inglourious Basterds, which took in $15.03 million thanks, in no small part, to positive buzz. (Oh yeah, and Brad Pitt bashing Nazis rather than being them.) This just might be the movie that saved the Weinstein Company. No doubt it salves the disappointment of Halloween II (sixth place, $7.07 million, $27.1 million total), which the Weinsteins undoubtedly hoped would perform like the original Halloween.

Of the new releases, two of them performed very well. All About Steve rides the hot streaks of both Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper, debuting in third place with $13.9 million this weekend. These sort of fish out of water romantic comedies can come out whenever and still draw a good audience. Maybe one of these days I'll stop doubting the power of Sandra Bullock.

Gamer, starring Gerard Butler, took fourth place with $11.2 million. I had assumed Gamer would win this weekend. I thought for sure the marketing campaign and Gerard Butler would win over despite Gamer's general premise, which has been seen many times before and never performed well at the box office. This is going to be one of those that makes its money on the DVD end of things.

The same can be said of Mike Judge's new film Extract, which flopped on release. The comedy managed $5.3 million, but only took tenth place this weekend. Office Space made about as much when it came out in 1999, and it was a disappointment even then. I guess Judge's creations that aren't Beavis and Butthead just don't come across well to the general audience, despite the fact that he's pumped out big DVD hits with Office Space and Idiocracy. More people need to give him a chance, even if he did put Ben Affleck in his latest. Maybe it's just me, but I think he's great.

District 9 takes fifth place this weekend, on a strong $9 million holiday weekend. This pushes the film to over $103 million Stateside, which is a very respectable number for a film from a first-time director. The marketing campaign and Peter Jackson's name helped this film, but the really positive word of mouth and incredible special effects keep asses in seats. This is a deserved hit and a starmaking debut for director Neill Blomkamp. GI Joe, boasting just as many special effects, took eighth place this weekend on $6.7 million. Unlike District 9, this movie opened huge and has died off steadily. Plus, with a $175 million budget, it's going to struggle to break even.

Julie & Julia brings in another $7 million this weekend. Just like last weekend, in fact. The movie has been steadily bringing in good paydays, and has made the quietest $80 million in quite some time. The big question for me is, will it make $100 million? I think it definitely could. I had that hope for The Time Traveler's Wife (ninth place, $5.455 million), but it never quite got the big start that Julie & Julia did and the sci-fi elements didn't help matters.

Coming out next weekend is Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself, which, in a perfect world, wouldn't come close to the gross of an inventive, thrilling-looking movie like 9. However, since this isn't a perfect world, Tyler Perry's probably got another huge hit on his hands and 9 will be punished for having an interesting look. Also out this weekend are the horror Sorority Row (thank goodness that trailer will finally go away!) and the thriller Whiteout, featuring Kate Beckinsale and The Spirit (Gabriel Macht).