Basterds Meets Its Final Destination

3-D horror sequel tops Brad Pitt movie at weekend box office, but there's no gory glory for Halloween 2

Given the competition, the weekend could've been a real horror show for Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino.

Instead, their Inglourious Basterds held up OK at the box office, even as it was downed in the standings by the 3-D-boosted The Final Destination, which topped all films with an estimated $28.3 million debut.

Rob Zombie's Halloween 2, the other new horror film, bowed behind Basterds with $17.4 million, and failed to come close to matching the 2007 franchise restarter.

Drilling down into the numbers:

• In a switch-up from Fast and Furious, which found success by dropping the articles from its franchise title, The Final Destination added an article en route to becoming the biggest-debuting movie of its series.

• The Final Destination blew away the three previous "the"-lacking Final Destination movies, none of which debuted with even $20 million. The new movie was the first in 3-D, and, hence, the first to charge higher 3-D prices—not an insignificant factor, considering 3-D accounted for a whopping 70 percent of the film's business.

• The Final Destination also blew away the year's previous 3-D horror champ, My Bloody Valentine 3D.

• Inglourious Basterds saw ticket sales drop less than 50 percent from its first weekend—a very good sign. Another good sign: With another $20 million in the bank, the film has already topped its reputed budget, grossing $73.8 million domestically off a $70 million investment.

• Among the 10 Halloween movies, Halloween 2 goes down as the second-biggest opener. The problem is it fell almost $10 million short of Zombie's first crack at the franchise, 2007's Halloween. No word if the series restart will be restarted with an installment entitled The Halloween.

• It was not a great weekend to be a kid, or rather, to be a movie that needed kid business. The four highest-grossing movies, including the still strong District 9, were rated R.

• Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock did not inspire Woodstock crowds at the multiplex. Opening at nearly 1,400 theaters, the nostaligia piece averaged only $2,691 per screen, and settled for a ninth place, $3.7 million debut.

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince exits the Top 10 after six weekends. Its $294.4 million take (so far) puts it second among all Harry Potter films, as well as second among all 2009 films.

• So much for the print slump. The September Issue, a documentary on Vogue editor Anna Wintour, was, theater for theater, the weekend's biggest reporting movie, grossing $40,013 at six theaters, for a $240,078 gross.

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. The Final Destination, $28.3 million
2. Inglourious Basterds, $20 million
3. Halloween 2, $17.4 million
4. District 9, $10.7 million
5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, $8 million
6. Julie & Julia, $7.4 million
7. The Time Traveler's Wife, $6.7 million
8. Shorts, $4.9 million
9. Taking Woodstock, $3.7 million
10. G-Force, $2.8 million

(Originally published Aug. 30, 2009, at 9:06 a.m. PT)