According to studio estimates issued Monday, The Final Destination earned $15.4 million during the four days beginning Sept. 4. The 11-day haul for the fourth movie in Warner Bros' horror franchise rose to $50.6 million. The studio is a unit of Time Warner Inc.
Quentin Tarantino's World War Two picture Inglourious Basterds held steady at No. 2 with $15 million. With $95.2 million banked after three weekends, it needs to surpass only the $108 million haul of 1994's Pulp Fiction to become his biggest film. Basterds was co-financed by the closely held Weinstein Co and General Electric Co's Universal Pictures.
All About Steve, a critical bomb starring Bullock as a lovelorn crossword-puzzle constructor, earned $13.9 million. When three-day estimates were issued Sunday, the 20th Century Fox release ranked No. 2, but Inglourious Basterds caught up to it.
The All About Steve opening marked a considerable drop from the $33.6 million launch of Bullock's previous hit The Proposal in June. All About Steve co-star Bradley Cooper did even better that month with the $45 million debut of his summer smash The Hangover. Both tallies were for three-day periods.
But the new picture played in 2,251 theaters, about 900 fewer than either The Proposal, The Final Destination or The Hangover. It was also released at a time—the dying days of summer—when the studios are clearing out underperformers so they can focus on their awards-season hopefuls.
Bullock also produced the movie, whose audience was about two-thirds female, according to the News Corp-owned studio.
Of the other two new releases, both targeted at male youngsters, Gamer opened at No. 4 with $11.2 million, and Extract at No. 10 with $5.3 million.
Lionsgate's Gamer stars Gerard Butler (300) as a heroic killer frantically reducing the population count. The studio is a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
Miramax Films' Extract, another workplace satire from Office Space director Mike Judge, stars Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck. It has already earned 12 times as much as the lifetime total of Judge's previous effort, Idiocracy, in 2006.
Miramax is a unit of Walt Disney Co.
