The 3D horror film The Final Destination topped the weekend box office for the second week in a row, but its 3-day take of just $12.4 million was the lowest winning total since the ill-fated Bangkok Dangerous topped the box office derby a year ago with a pitiful $7.8 million.  All About Steve, which stars Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper, posted the top per-theater total among widely distributed films (a modest $4,976) and finished in second place with an estimated $11.2 million.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): Sept. 4-6, 2009

Rank	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./Screen
1	The Final Destination	$12,435,000	3,121	$3,984
2	All About Steve	$11,200,000	2,251	$4,976
3	Inglourious Basterds	$10,847,000	3,358	$3,230
4	Gamer	$9,000,000	2,502	$3,597
5	District 9	$7,000,000	3,139	$2,230
6	Halloween II (2009)	$5,608,000	3,088	$1,816
7	Julie & Julia	$5,200,000	2,528	$2,057
8	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	$5,100,000	2,846	$1,792
9	The Time Traveler's Wife	$4,215,000	2,803	$1,504
10	Extract	$4,187,000	1,611	$2,599

The record-setting 2009 summer season, which debuted with a bang on the adamantium claws of Wolverine, ended with a whimper thanks to the lowest 3-day total of the year so far.  For the first time all summer, the total of the top ten films failed to pass the $100 million mark, as the end of summer movies attracted the smallest Labor Day weekend audience in a decade.

 

Lionsgate’s Gamer, which stars Gerard Butler, earned a disappointing $9 million from 2,500 screens and finished fourth, while Mike Judge’s Extract debuted in the tenth spot with just $4.2 million, exactly the same total that Judge’s Office Space opened with in 1999 (though $4.2 million in 1999 is equivalent to over 6 million today when adjusted for ticket price inflation).  Office Space was a box office disappointment that became a huge hit on video and DVD, and it is quite possible that a similar fate awaits Extract, which features Jason Bateman.

 

The Final Destination, the latest installment of the horror series that places gorgeous but unknown actors in dire straits, declined 55%, a modest amount by contemporary horror and action film standards.  With the exception of Halloween II (off 66%), modest drops were the norm for the top ten.  Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (#3) fell off just 44%, while District 9 (#5) declined just 32%, Julie & Julia (#7) only slipped 26%, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra(#8) surrendered 34%, and Time Traveler’s Wife (#9) tumbled 35%.  The holdovers did well.  It was the new films that didn’t hold up their part of the bargain.

 

Among the milestones that occurred this week District 9 became the 19th film this year to pass the $100 million mark, while Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen became the first 2009 film to earn more than $400 million.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has run its cumulative to $297 million and will likely become the second film to pass $300 million this year, while Pixar’s Up with $290.6 is not far behind.  Tarantino's Basterds, which actually came in second over the 4-day holiday, has surpassed the $95 million mark and will become the 20th film to pass $100 million sometime this week.

 

Meanwhile Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo dropped only 32% and added $1.3 million to its modest $13 million total, which is nonetheless the largest gross that any of his classic anime features has earned in North America.